Definitions

Information relating to unintentional injury is derived from two sources:

• mortality data provided by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS); and
• non-obstetric/non-psychiatric hospital inpatient data from the Scottish Morbidity Record SMR01 (previously SMR1).

Many unintentional injuries result neither in death nor hospital admission but are treated by GPs, as outpatients in Accident and Emergency departments or by the child's parent or carer.

ICD9/10: International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 9th and 10th Revisions.

Deaths
The codes used for identifying deaths due to an unintentional injury are outlined below.

Unintentional Injury	ICD9 (up to 1999)	ICD10 (from 2000)
Table 1 - Deaths 1
All injuries	E800-E949	V01-X59, Y40-Y59,Y85-Y86
Road traffic accidents	E810-E819, E826-E829	V01-V89
Home injuries	E850-E869 (5th digit 0),	X40-X49 (5th digit 0),
	E880-E928 (5th digit 0)	W00-W84 (5th digit 0),
		X00-X19 (5th digit 0)
Other injuries	other in range E800-E949	other in range V01-X59,
		Y40-Y59,Y85-Y86
Table 4 - Deaths by cause 1
Land transports accidents	E810-E819, E826-E829	V00-V89
Poisonings	E850-E869	X40-X49
Falls	E880-E888	W00-W19
Drowning/submersion	E910	W65-W74
Choking	E911-E913	W79-W80
Burns and scalds	N/A (data not presented prior to 2000)	T20-T28; X10-X19
Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces 2	N/A (data not presented prior to 2000)	W20-W49
Exposure to animate mechanical forces 3	N/A (data not presented prior to 2000)	W50-W64
Accidental exposure	N/A (data not presented prior to 2000)	X58-X59
Overexertion	N/A (data not presented prior to 2000)	X50
Other	other in range E800-E949	other in range V90-V99, W75-W78,
		W81-W89, X00-X09, X20-X39,
		X51-X57, Y40-Y59, Y85-Y86
Table 17 - Deaths due to assault by sharp object
	E9699	X99

SMR1/SMR01
The codes used for identifying emergency hospital admissions due to an unintentional injury are outlined below.

Unintentional Injury	SMR1/01 admission code(s) and ICD10 codes
Table 2 - Emergency hospital admissions
All injuries	SMR1 type of admission codes 5-7; 5 - Emergency - road traffic accident 6 - Emergency - home accident (includes accidental poisoning in the home) 7 - Emergency - other injury (includes accidental poisoning other than in the home)
	SMR01 admission type code 32-35 32 - Patient injury - road traffic accident 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Road traffic accidents	SMR1 type of admission code 5 5 - Emergency - road traffic accident
	SMR01 admission type code 32 32 - Patient injury - road traffic accident
Home injuries	SMR1 type of admission code 6 6 - Emergency - home accident (includes accidental poisoning in the home)
	SMR01 admission type code 33 33 - Patient injury - home incident
Other injuries	SMR1 type of admission code 7 7 - Emergency - other injury (include accidental poisoning other than in the home)
	SMR01 admission type code 34-35 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Table 3 - Emergency hospital admissions by cause
Poisonings	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 X40-X49 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Falls	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 W00-W19 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Drowning/submersion	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 W65-W74 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Choking	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 W79-W80 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Burns and scalds	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 T20-T28; X10-X19 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces 2	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 W20-W49 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Exposure to animate mechanical forces 3	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 W50-W64 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Accidental exposure	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 X58-X59 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Resulting from assault 1	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 X85-Y09 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Overexertion	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 X50 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Non RTA transport accident	Admission type code 33-35 and ICD10 V01-V09 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Other	Admission type code 33-35 and other ICD10 codes in range V01-X59, Y40-Y59, Y85-Y86 33 - Patient injury - home incident 34 - Patient injury - incident at work 35 - Patient injury - other injury
Table 17 - Emergency hospital admissions due to assault by sharp object
	ICD10 code X99

Standardised Mortality Ratio

The standardised mortality ratio (SMR)  = (number of observed deaths/number of expected deaths)*100
where:
number of observed deaths = number of deaths in each area of interest (e.g NHS Board, deprivation quintile).
number of expected deaths = number of deaths that would have been "expected" in area of interest if the Scottish death rates had prevailed.

Standardised Discharge Ratio

The standardised discharge ratio (SMR)  = (number of observed discharges/number of expected discharges)*100
where:
number of observed discharges = number of discharges in each area of interest (e.g NHS Board, deprivation quintile).
number of expected discharges = number of discharges that would have been 'expected' in area of interest if the Scottish discharge rates had prevailed.

95% Confidence Intervals

An estimate of the statistical significance of the standardised ratio (SMR or SDR) can be obtained from the 95% confidence interval. If the confidence interval does not include 100, the difference in unintentional injury rates recorded for a particular population compared with the standard population (Scotland) is said to be 'statistically significant'. For example, for a ratio of 158 with 95% confidence intervals of 129-188, the difference from the standard population is deemed to be statistically significant since the range 129-188 does not include 100.

Scottish Index for Multiple Deprivation 2004 (SIMD)

The SIMD has six domains (income, employment, education, housing, health and geographical access) at datazone level, which have been combined into an overall index. Click here for further information.

Disclosure

Due to the sensitive nature of some topics, it is necessary to suppress some small numbers. In addition, some secondary suppression may be required to prevent the calculation of suppressed data.

For further information on data definitions, please click here.

1. Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces - this includes being struck/contact with an object such as glass, knife, machinery etc.

2. Exposure to animate mechanical forces - this includes contact/collision with animals or persons, for example striking against or bumped into by another person, bitten or struck by a dog etc.

3. Resulting from assaults - assaults are commonly included in the definition of unintentional injuries as they are considered to be unintentional from the point of view of the victim. As such, assaults are included in the definition of hospital admission due to unintentional injury. However, at the request of the General Register Office for Scotland, assaults are not included in the definition of deaths due to unitentional injury.

back to top