Cost of Injury Module Help

WISQARS Cost of Injury Module allows users to produce estimates of the costs associated with injury-related deaths, hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits. Cost estimates are based on data from:

The process for customizing queries and selecting output options is briefly described below.

Getting Started

To customize the table displayed when you access the module, you will begin by clicking the "Change Filters" button near the top, right of the screen.

WISQARS™ Data Use Agreement

You are asked to agree to the terms of the WISQARS™ Data Use Agreement the first time you click on the "Change Filters" button. Click "I Agree" on the pop-up screen to accep t the confidentiality terms for data usage and to continue to the "Data Selections" screen.

The Data Filters screen will allow you to make some key decisions about the data you want to view—such as injury outcome (fatal or nonfatal), data year, geography, intent, mechanism, cost measure, cost type, age and sex—to create a report.

Some choices may affect the other data filter options that are available. For example, under the "geography" option, state-level data is only available if you choose to see fatal data under "injury outcome". Below is a list of the data options available.

Data Selections screen for WISQARS' Cost of Injury Module
Data Selections screen for WISQARS' Cost of Injury Module

Data Filters: Injury Outcomes

This section allows you to specify the type of injury outcome for which cost estimates are to be generated. One of the following three injury outcomes must be selected:

  • Fatal: This option refers to injury-related deaths for which a death certificate was filed in a state vital statistics office and then submitted to the National Center for Health Statistics for inclusion in the National Vital Statistics System.
  • Nonfatal Hospitalization: This option refers to patients initially treated for an injury in a United States hospital emergency department and then either hospitalized or transferred for specialized physical or psychological care. Patients directly admitted to a hospital from outpatient clinics or other treatment venues, and patients treated and released from hospital emergency departments are excluded from this category. Secondary hospitalizations related to the same injury incident are also excluded. The source of the data used to estimate the number of injury-related hospitalizations is the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System – All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP).
  • Nonfatal ED Treat and Release Visit: This option refers to patients treated for an injury in a United States hospital emergency department and then released without being hospitalized or transferred for specialized physical or psychological care. Secondary emergency department visits related to the same injury incident are not included in this category. The source of the data used to estimate the number of such visits is NEISS-AIP.

Data Filters: Intent

This option allows you to request cost estimates by intent of injury. Intent of injury is whether an injury was caused by an act carried out on purpose by oneself or by another person(s), with the goal of injuring or killing.

Users can select the intent of injury from the dropdown menu under "Intent". The intent categories for injury-related deaths are:

  • All Intents
  • Unintentional
  • Violence related (homicide, legal intervention, suicide)
  • Undetermined

The intent categories for injuries resulting in hospitalization subsequent to emergency department (ED) treatment or injuries resulting in an ED visit followed by release (without hospitalization or other transfer) are:

  • All intents
  • Unintentional (includes undetermined)
  • Violence-related (assaults, legal intervention, self-harm)

WISQARS Glossary

Find definitions for the different injury intents at the WISQARS Glossary.

Data Filters: Mechanism

This option allows you to request cost estimates by mechanism (cause) of injury. The cause, or mechanism, of injury is the way in which the person sustained the injury; how the person was injured; or the process by which the injury occurred.

Users can select the cause or mechanism of injury (e.g., firearm, poisoning) from the dropdown menu under "Mechanism."

Fatal - There are 28 mechanism categories for injury-related deaths. Of those, adverse effects overall, fire/burn, poisoning, transport-related overall, motor vehicle - traffic, pedal cyclist, and pedestrian mechanisms have options that allow the user to run more detailed queries.

Nonfatal - There are 18 reportable mechanism categories for injuries resulting in hospitalization subsequent to ED treatment or injuries resulting in an ED visit followed by release (without hospitalization or other transfer). Of those, the transportation mechanism has options that allow the user to run more detailed queries.

Data Filters: Cost Measure and Cost type

The options in this section allow you to request different types of cost estimates.

By checking one or multiple boxes under this heading, you can request cost estimates representing:

  • Lifetime medical costs, and/or
  • Lifetime work loss costs, and/or
  • Quality of life loss cost, and/or
  • Combined costs (lifetime medical plus lifetime work loss).

Note: For injury-related deaths, lifetime medical costs refer to the medical costs associated with the fatal injury event.

WISQARS Glossary

Find definitions for lifetime medical costs, lifetime work costs, and Quality of life loss cost at the WISQARS Glossary.

By checking one or both boxes under this heading, you can request cost estimates presented n the form of:

  • Totals (for all injuries covered by each reporting category), and/or
  • Averages (per case; available for reports based exclusively on system-provided data).

Data Filters: Demographics

Users can select the year, place, and victim demographics that they wish to include in the final report.

Users can select the year of fatal or nonfatal injury data they want to explore from the dropdown menu under "Data Year." WISQARS' Cost of Injury module has data going back to 2015. The default setting is the most recent data year available.

From the dropdown menu under "geography," users can request to see national cost estimates for either fatal or nonfatal injuries. Regional and state-level estimates are only available for fatal injuries.

Sex

You can request cost estimates for:

  • Both sexes (the default), which includes unknown sex, or
  • Males only, or
  • Females only.

Age

The age range for cost estimates can be specified in one of three different ways:

  • All ages (the default), which includes persons of unknown age.
  • Age groups, which allows selection of a specific age range in fixed 5-year increments. To request cost estimates for a single 5-year age group, both age group selection boxes should contain the same entry (for example, 15–19 to 15–19).
  • Custom age range, which allows selection of any age range (in years) and provides the most flexibility. This option is particularly useful for requesting information on a specific group whose ages do not coincide with the fixed 5-year age increments, such as teenagers (i.e., ages 13 to 19). To request cost estimates covering a single year of age, simply repeat the age in both selection boxes (e.g., 18 to 18).

Note: Age ranges (groups) include the endpoint years. For example, the age range 15–19 includes persons who were 15 years old and persons who were 19 years old.

Data Filters: Report Layout

Users can select how they want the results grouped. Two output groups can be chosen. In WISQARS' Cost of Injury, you can group results by:

  • Intent
  • Mechanism
  • Sex
  • Age
  • Age Group
  • State (only available for fatal injuries)

Users may want to run multiple queries to decide which table layout best reflects the data that they wish to display.

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