Implications of using administrative healthcare data to identify risk of motor vehicle crash-related injury: the importance of distinguishing crash from crash-related injury.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Administrative healthcare databases, such as Medicare, are increasingly used to identify groups at risk of a crash. However, they only contain information on crash-related injuries, not all crashes. If the driver characteristics associated with crash and crash-related injury differ, conflating the two may result in ineffective or imprecise policy interventions.

Methods

We linked 10 years (2008-2017) of Medicare claims to New Jersey police crash reports to compare the demographics, clinical diagnoses, and prescription drug dispensings for crash-involved drivers ≥ 68 years with a police-reported crash to those with a claim for a crash-related injury. We calculated standardized mean differences to compare characteristics between groups.

Results

Crash-involved

SUBMITTER: Joyce NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11318118 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature