Standardized death rates (three-year average) for road traffic injuries in people aged 0–24 years

Data source
Data on SDR from transport accidents come from the WHO health for all mortality database under “Standardized death rates, transport accidents, per 100 000” (1).

Description of data
It should be noted that some countries have stopped reporting mortality data on motor-vehicle traffic injuries. The indicator on transport accidents is a proxy that allows a more comprehensive and up-to-date comparison to be made at the European level, although it should be understood that it includes deaths occurred in other types of transport accident (for example, railway and aviation). It is defined as including ICD-9 BTL code B47; ICD-9 codes 800–848; ICD-10 codes V01–V99; ex-USSR 175 list 160–162; ICD-10 Mortality Condensed list 1: 1096; and EUROSTAT list of 65 causes: 60. The injury rate includes individuals who sustained one or more serious or slight injuries, but also those who died immediately or within 30 days as a result of the accident. It should be noted that practices of data collection and reporting differ among countries, as does the definition of an injured person (in the Netherlands, for example, an injured person is defined as one taken to hospital after the accident). The presentation includes WHO European Region countries with more than 1 million inhabitants.

Method of calculating the indicator
The indicator represents the SDR for road traffic injuries in people aged 0–24 years. The SDR is calculated using the direct method and standard WHO European Region population structure. They were calculated by staff of the WHO Regional Office for Europe using the data on deaths by cause, age and sex and mid-year population by age and sex annually reported to WHO by Member States. Three-year averages of the SDR have been calculated in order to smooth out short-term fluctuations.

Geographical coverage
SDR data for 43 Member States of the WHO European Region are used for this fact sheet (1). Member States with populations below 1 million (Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco and Montenegro) are not included. There are no data for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The UNECE statistical database (2) supplied additional data for 32 Member States.

Period of coverage
Mortality rates show the average of the last three years available, as reported in the WHO health for all mortality database. Data from 1980 are available in the database.

Frequency of update
Annually.

Data quality
It should be noted that mortality rates and (in particular) injury rates for some countries may be biased owing to underreporting, especially in the central Asian republics, the Caucasus countries and some countries in the Balkans. Since health data recording and handling systems and practices vary between countries, so do the availability and accuracy of the data. Some countries are not able to ensure exact coding of underlying causes and complete registration of all deaths and injuries. In certain cases, underregistration of deaths may be as high as 20% and this must be borne in mind when making comparisons between countries. This problem can be further aggravated by a lack of sufficiently accurate population estimates used as the denominator when calculating indicators. The problems are caused by a lack of surveillance through severe socioeconomic difficulties and armed conflicts in some countries (1).