TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1998//
TI  - Fatal firearm-related injury surveillance in Maryland
JO  - American journal of preventive medicine
A1  - Wiersema, B.
A1  - Loftin, C.
A1  - Mullen, R. C.
A1  - Daub, Erich M.
A1  - Sheppard, Monique A.
A1  - Smialek, John E.
A1  - McDowall, D.
SP  - 46
EP  - 56
VL  - 15
IS  - 3 Suppl
N2  - CONTEXT: Maryland began a statewide firearm-related injury surveillance system in 1995. The system now focuses on firearm-related deaths; a system to monitor nonfatal injuries is being developed. The system is passive; it accesses, integrates, and analyzes data collected by Maryland's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Maryland State Police, and Division of Health Statistics. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the surveillance system's ability to ascertain cases in the absence of a standard for the true number of cases. DESIGN: Link records of the same firearm-related death captured by the surveillance system's multiple data sources, comparing the rate of false positives and false negatives, and assessing errors in linkage variables. SETTING: Maryland, 1991-1994. PARTICIPANTS: All deaths occurring in the state of Maryland as a result of a firearm-related injury. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sensitivity and positive predictive value. RESULTS: The system is extremely sensitive, detecting 99.61% of cases, and it has a very high positive predictive value, with 99.87% of the cases identified from medical examiner's office data being confirmed as actual cases. CONCLUSIONS: Maryland's database of information from the medical examiner's office is highly accurate for ascertaining firearm-related deaths that occur in the state. A unique identifier common across data sources would ease record linkage efforts, and improve the system's ability to monitor firearm-related deaths.
LA  - 
SN  - 0749-3797
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -