National Trends in Injury Hospitalizations, 1979-2001

The chartbook contains 31 figures and corresponding data points based on data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) for years 1979-2001. The NHDS is a nationally representative survey of discharges from non-Federal short-stay hospitals in the United States. Trends are graphically displayed by age and sex along with brief text highlights. Figures in this chartbook have been grouped into three sections:

General statistics by demographic information
Injury diagnoses and external causes of injuries
Utilization and payment

Injury hospitalization data are important to track because such injuries, though rarely an immediate threat to life (only 2 percent of hospitalized injury patients die during their hospital stay), are generally serious enough to warrant acute inpatient care. States will be able to compare the data they gather to the national data included in this chartbook.