Differences in Reporting of Violence and Deliberate Self Harm Related Injuries to Health and Police Authorities, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Umar Farooq,Mudassir Majeed,Junaid Abdul Razzak,Muhammad Mussadiq Khan,Junaid Ahmad Bhatti,Jahangir Sarwar Khan,Ehsan Syed

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009373

Umar Farooq, Mudassir Majeed + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009373

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Feb 23, 2010
Citations: 35	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Holy Family Hospital, Aga Khan University, Inserm

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim of study was to assess differences in reporting of violence and deliberate self harm (DSH) related injuries to police and emergency department (ED) in an urban town of Pakistan.Methods/Principal FindingsStudy setting was Rawalpindi city of 1.6 million inhabitants. Incidences of violence and DSH related injuries and deaths were estimated from record linkage of police and ED data. These were then compared to reported figures in both datasets. All persons reporting violence and DSH related injury to the police station, the public hospital's ED, or both in Rawalpindi city from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 were included. In Rawalpindi city, 1 016 intentional injury victims reported to police whereas 3 012 reported to ED. Comparing violence related fatality estimates (N = 56, 95% CI: 46–64), police reported 75.0% and ED reported 42.8% of them. Comparing violence related injury estimates (N = 7 990, 95% CI: 7 322–8 565), police reported 12.1% and ED reported 33.2% of them. Comparing DSH related fatality estimates (N = 17, 95% CI: 4–30), police reported 17.7% and ED reported 47.1% of them. Comparing DSH related injury estimates (N = 809, 95% CI: 101–1 516), police reported 0.5% and ED reported 39.9% of them.ConclusionIn Rawalpindi city, police records were more likely to be complete for violence related deaths as compared to injuries due to same mechanism. As compared to ED, police reported DSH related injuries and deaths far less than those due to other types of violence.

Highlights

One third of all injuries are intentional, half of which are self-inflicted whereas the other half result from interpersonal and collective violence [1], [2], [3]
In Rawalpindi city, police records were more likely to be complete for violence related deaths as compared to injuries due to same mechanism
The discrepancies in official statistics for intentional injuries has almost never been assessed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) most probably due to difficulties associated with data collection and linkages [3], [4]

Summary

Introduction

One third of all injuries are intentional, half of which are self-inflicted whereas the other half result from interpersonal and collective violence [1], [2], [3]. In 2002, these injuries resulted in over 1.6 million deaths worldwide with an age adjusted mortality rate of 28.8 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants [2] This disease burden was distributed differently between high-income (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as more than 90% of these deaths occurred in LMICs [2], [3]. Official crime statistics were the most common source of information used to assess intentional injury disease burden worldwide [4], [5], [6], [7] Use of these statistics to compute injury rates was often criticized due to underreporting [4], [6].

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