The impact of neighborhood socioeconomic disparities on injury.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic level (NSEL) and injury-related hospitalization.

METHODS

The National Trauma Registry (INTR) and the National Population Census (NPC), including NSEL, were linked by individual identity number. Age-adjusted logistic regression predicted injury hospitalization. Mantel-Haenszel  X was used for linear trends. NSEL was divided into 20 clusters.

RESULTS

The population comprised 7,412,592 residents, of which 125,829 (1.7%) were hospitalized due to injury. The injury hospitalization rate was at least 42 per 10,000 per year. Except for the very low SEL, an inverse relationship between NSEL and all-cause injury was found: 46.1/10,000 in cluster 3 compared to 22.9/10,000 in cluster 20. Hip fracture-related hospitalizations among ages 65 + decreased as SEL increased (2.19% o in cluster 2 compared to 0.95% in cluster 19). In comparison with Jews, non-Jews were 1.5 times more likely to have an injury-related hospitalization [OR 1.5 (95% CI 1.50-1.55)].

CONCLUSIONS

The INTR and the NPC were successfully linked providing individual and injury hospitalization data. The outcomes confirm the strong relationship between injury mechanism and NSEL.