What is the potential of trauma registry data to be used for road traffic injury surveillance and informing road safety policy?

INTRODUCTION: Information from hospital trauma registries is increasingly being used to support injury surveillance efforts. This research examines the potential of using trauma registry data for road traffic injury surveillance for different types of road users in terms of both the information collected and how representative trauma data are compared to two population-based road traffic injury data collections.
METHODS: The three data collections were assessed against recommended variables to be collected for injury surveillance purposes and the representativeness of the distribution of road traffic-related injury data from the trauma registry was compared to hospital admission and road traffic authority data collections.
RESULTS: Data from the trauma registry was largely not representative of the distribution of age groups or activities compared to the two population-based collections, but was representative for gender for some road user groups to at least one population-based data collection.
CONCLUSIONS: Trauma data could be used to supplement information from population-based data collections to inform road safety efforts. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Road safety policy makers should be aware of the potential and the limitations of using trauma registry data for road traffic injury surveillance.