Morrison A, Stone D H
Department of Child Health, Glasgow University, Yorkhill Hospital, UK.
Inj Prev. 2000 Dec;6(4):299-304. doi: 10.1136/ip.6.4.299.
Although the capture-recapture technique is increasingly employed in studies of human populations to correct for under-ascertainment in traditional epidemiological surveillance, it has rarely been used in injury research.
To estimate the completeness of official data sources on traffic related injuries (TRIs) by using the capture-recapture technique and to calculate an ascertainment corrected number of fatal and serious TRIs among Scottish young people aged 15-24 years. The appropriateness of the approach in this context is also assessed.
A two sample capture-recapture technique was applied to two official sources of TRI data. Data on TRIs were obtained from the Scottish Health Service and the STATS19 dataset at the University of Essex Data Archive for 1995. Four standards (A-D) of matching were applied to fatalities and serious TRIs to allow plausible relaxation of matching standards within the context of the data collection setting. The completeness of each data source was assessed, and an ascertainment corrected number of fatalities and serious TRIs calculated.
The ascertainment corrected number of TRI fatalities among 15-24 year olds using standard D was 104. This represents only a small increase in the number of fatalities using capture-recapture than when using each individual dataset. The completeness of the Scottish Health Service database for TRI fatalities was 93%. The STATS19 database was 95% complete. The ascertainment corrected number of TRI hospital admissions was 1969. The STATS19 and the Scottish Health Service databases were approximately two thirds and three quarters complete respectively for non-fatal TRIs requiring hospitalisation.
Injury researchers have advocated the linkage of major datasets to supplement and improve the quality of injury data. Using capture-recapture we found that routine databases enumerate TRI fatalities accurately, in contrast to injury morbidity databases that do not. Capture-recapture is a potentially useful method of evaluating the completeness of data sources and identifying biases within datasets. However, ascertainment corrected rates should be viewed with caution. A number of requirements of the capture-recapture technique are unachieved in this study of injury in the human population.
尽管捕获-再捕获技术在人群研究中越来越多地被用于纠正传统流行病学监测中的漏报情况，但它在伤害研究中很少被使用。
运用捕获-再捕获技术估计交通相关伤害（TRIs）官方数据源的完整性，并计算15至24岁苏格兰年轻人中经确定校正后的致命及严重TRIs数量。同时评估该方法在此背景下的适用性。
将两样本捕获-再捕获技术应用于两个TRIs官方数据源。1995年TRIs数据取自苏格兰卫生服务局以及埃塞克斯大学数据存档处的STATS19数据集。对死亡及严重TRIs应用四种匹配标准（A - D），以便在数据收集环境中合理放宽匹配标准。评估每个数据源的完整性，并计算经确定校正后的死亡及严重TRIs数量。
使用标准D时，15至24岁人群中经确定校正后的TRIs死亡人数为104人。与使用单个数据集相比，使用捕获-再捕获技术时死亡人数仅略有增加。苏格兰卫生服务局数据库中TRIs死亡数据的完整性为93%。STATS19数据库的完整性为95%。经确定校正后的TRIs住院人数为1969人。对于需要住院治疗的非致命TRIs，STATS19数据库和苏格兰卫生服务局数据库的完整性分别约为三分之二和四分之三。
伤害研究人员主张将主要数据集相链接，以补充和提高伤害数据的质量。通过捕获-再捕获技术我们发现，常规数据库能准确统计TRIs死亡人数，而伤害发病数据库则不然。捕获-再捕获技术是评估数据源完整性和识别数据集中偏差的一种潜在有用方法。然而，对经确定校正后的比率应谨慎看待。在这项关于人群伤害的研究中，捕获-再捕获技术的一些要求未得到满足。
