Do neighborhood demographics, crime rates, and alcohol outlet density predict incidence, severity, and outcome of hospitalization for traumatic injury? A cross-sectional study of Dallas County, Texas, 2010

BACKGROUND: Unintentional injury leads all other causes of death for those 1 to 45 years old. The expense of medical care for injured people is estimated to exceed $406 billion annually. Given this burden on the population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consistently refers to injury prevention as a national priority. We postulated that exposure to crime and the density of alcohol outlets in one's neighborhood will be positively associated with the incidence of hospitalization for and mortality from traumatic injuries, independent of other neighborhood characteristics. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study with ecological and individual analyses. Patient-level data for traumatic injury, injury severity, and hospital mortality due to traumatic injury in 2010 were gathered from the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Foundation. Each case of traumatic injury or death was geospatially linked with neighborhood of origin information from the 2010 U.S. Census within Dallas County, Texas. This information was subsequently linked with crime data gathered from 20 local police departments and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission alcohol outlet dataset. The crime data are the Part One crimes reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. RESULTS: The proportion of persons 65 years old or older was the strongest predictor of the incidence of hospitalization for traumatic injury (b = 12.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 8.73 to 16.55). In turn, the incidence of traumatic injury most strongly predicted the severity of traumatic injury (b = 0.008, 95% CI 0.0003 – 0.0012). The tract-level unemployment rate was associated with a 5% increase in the odds of hospital mortality among hospitalized trauma patients. CONCLUSIONS: Several neighborhood characteristics were associated with the incidence, severity, and hospital mortality from traumatic injury. However, crime rates and alcohol outlet density carried no such association. Prevention efforts should focus on neighborhood characteristics such as population density, mean age of the residents, and unemployment rate, regardless of crime rates and alcohol outlet density. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40621-014-0023-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.