Validity of a Surveillance System for Childhood Injuries in a Rural Block of Tamilnadu

BACKGROUND: Childhood injuries are increasingly getting the attention of public health experts following WHO's report on global burden of diseases. Surveillance is an important component of control of any disease and effectiveness of the surveillance system depends upon completeness of the information about occurrence of the health related events to the public health authorities. AIMS: This study aimed to set up a surveillance system for childhood injuries and validate it by a survey and thereafter estimate the incidence of childhood injuries using capture recapture method. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Observational study design. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Passive surveillance system for childhood injuries was created for 26,811 children of less than fourteen years of Kaniyambadi block and it was validated by cross sectional study at the end of surveillance period. Using these two independent information systems, capture recapture method was applied to find out the possible incidence of injuries in the given population at a given period of time. STATISTICS: Chi square, Lincoln Peterson formula for capture re-capture method. RESULTS: Surveillance and survey for childhood injuries identified 13.59/1000 child-years (CI: 11.86 - 15.32) and 341.89/1000 child-years (CI: 254.46-429.33) of injury rates, respectively. CONCLUSION: Passive surveillance system underreports childhood injuries markedly but it does identify childhood injuries of serious nature.