Gender and geographic differences in intentional and unintentional injury mortality among children in Illinois, 1988-1998.

Abstract

Data were obtained from the Compressed Mortality File (CMF) administered by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data from the CMF were retrieved using the internet-based CDC WONDER search tool. The CMF includes all deaths of United States citizens from 1968–present. For this study we selected the State of Illinois to examine injury-related mortality among children. Our sample included all children aged 1–14 residing in the State of Illinois between 1988 and 1998 who died from an injury. Deaths were further stratified by rural/urban status and gender. Counties were defined as rural/non-metropolitan or urban/ metropolitan based on their classification in the urban influence code system, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Counties were considered metropolitan if they contained one or more central cities of at least 50,000 residents, or had a U.S. Census Bureau-defined urbanized area (and a total metro area population of 100,000 or more), or were fringe counties that are economically tied to the core counties. Non-metropolitan counties were outside the boundaries of metro areas with populations less than 50,000 residents. There are 102 counties in Illinois, with 28% being urban. Injury deaths were classified using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, External Cause of Injury Codes (See Appendix A). Average annual rates were calculated by gender and metropolitan/non-metropolitan status. Rates were derived from U.S. Bureau of Census intercensal and postcensal estimates of the State of Illinois resident population. For death counts of 20 or fewer, rates were deemed unreliable and were not calculated. Rate ratios were calculated to examine gender and geographic differences in injury mortality.