APPLICATION OF CAPTURE-RECAPTURE METHODOLOGY TO ESTIMATE THE COMPLETENESS OF CHILD INJURY SURVEILLANCE

This paper describes the use of the two sample capture-recapture metho d to estimate the completeness of ascertainment of injury events in bo th routine public hospital discharge statistics and in an active injur y surveillance system. For all child pedestrian injuries public hospit al discharge statistics were 90% complete, the active surveillance sys tem being 79% complete. Capture-recapture methods have the potential t o improve the accuracy of traditional childhood injury surveillance sy stems.