ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Epidemiology of Injuries in the Philippines:

An Analysis of Secondary Data
Adovich S. Rivera,1 Hilton Y. Lam1 and Joel U. Macalino2
1
Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies, National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines Manila
2
Department of Surgery, College of Medicine and Philippine General Hospital, University of the Philippines Manila

ABSTRACT

Background. Injury surveillance is viewed as an important component of injury prevention. Several data systems
in the Philippines exist but have not been analyzed together. Analyzing these readily available data can guide
policy making.

Objective. This report aimed to describe the epidemiology of injuries in the Philippines using secondary datasets.

Method. Death data of 2013 from the Philippines Statistics Authority and injury surveillance data of 2014 from the
Department of Health were obtained and recoded. Summary statistics were generated.

Results. Injured persons mainly come from the young age group. There were a higher number of males compared to
females. Provincial variations in death rates for specific injury types existed. There did not seem to be an obvious
pattern in injury occurrence according to month and time of day. High numbers of injuries were reported during
daytime but admission and death rates peak at night. Injuries were shown to be an anatomically heterogeneous
group with dominance in superficial injuries, head trauma, and hand fractures.

Conclusion. Analysis of secondary datasets revealed the epidemiology of injuries in the Philippines. Results have
implications in health policy and injury prevention.

Key Words: epidemiology, Philippines, secondary data analysis, surveillance, wounds and injuries

Introduction

Injury is defined as “physical damage that results when

a human body is suddenly or briefly subjected to intolerable
levels of energy.” Different classification methods can be
used for injuries. It could be classified according to the
cause (mechanical, radiant, thermal, electrical, or chemical)
or according to anatomy (e.g. head, chest, abdominal).
A variation of the cause would describe the situation
surrounding the injury (e.g. interpersonal, war, force of
nature, road injury).1 Each of these classification systems can
be useful in injury prevention and treatment. Information
on injuries should be collected for public health purposes
through surveillance.
Injury surveillance is viewed as an important component
of a country’s injury prevention efforts. The systematic
Corresponding author: Adovich S. Rivera, MD and continuous collection of injury data allows empirical
Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies evidence to be considered whenever a country develops
National Institutes of Health programs or policies.1 Towards this end, the Philippines
University of the Philippines Manila
Taft Ave., Ermita, Manila 1000 Philippines
established multiple systems in place to capture data on
Telephone: +63 917 5324607 injuries. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) compiles
Email: adovich.rivera@gmail.com data on registered deaths and stores these data in electronic

180 ACTA MEDICA PHILIPPINA VOL. 52 NO. 2 2018

 Epidemiology of Injuries

format. The Philippine National Police (PNP) has its own The Online National Electronic Injury surveillance
reporting system although it is limited to injuries with system is managed by the Epidemiology Bureau of the
criminal or legal implications. Finally, the Department of Department of Health. In 2014, 116 hospitals all-over
Health (DOH) has the Online National Electronic Injury the country participated in the surveillance system, albeit,
Surveillance System (ONEISS).2 with varying degrees of compliance. The system collects
These systems operate independently and are not linked. demographic and health data of injury patients consulting
Analyses of the data for deaths and police reports are not in surveillance hospitals. The latest form is available at the
publicized in academic journals. The ONEISS regularly Department of Health website. Data are collected at the
publishes quarterly reports describing the patterns of Emergency room and might be updated depending on the
injuries and provides useful information on injury patterns course of the patient and results of further testing. Data
in the country.3 However, the system used to describe the are collected via pen-and-paper forms and then encoded
injuries in terms of symptoms or manifestations is not ideal. separately. The encoded data are forwarded directly to the
The categorization uses broad criteria and does not provide national system where the Epidemiology Bureau can conduct
much anatomical detail. A better description of injuries will cleaning and analysis on a quarterly basis.
help guide hospitals in terms of resource management and
capacity building. Method
Describing the epidemiology of injuries is important Data on deaths from the Philippine Statistics Authority,
in the context of creating a safer environment. The lack and injuries from the Online National Electronic Injury
of high quality epidemiology data interferes with the surveillance system were requested. The PSA was able to
development of targeted injury prevention programs.4 For provide 2013 data for deaths classified as injuries using the
example, geographic data is useful for road injury prevention ICD codes V00 to Y99. The ONEISS was able to provide
as it would identify injury hot spots which could serve as data for injuries which occurred and were reported in 2014.
targets for stricter law enforcement or road engineering The databases were cleaned and re-coded in Excel. For
interventions. Identifying the ages affected by a specific ONEISS, injuries described were classified according to the
injury would help tailor the message to target audience Global Burden of Disease Injury criteria. If a person had
since education materials that may be effective among adults multiple injuries, the person was counted under the injury
might not be applicable for children. category that was deemed most severe. The severity is based
The study provides an analysis of available injury data on the disability weight assigned to that injury type. The
leading to an epidemiologic description of injuries in the disability weights used were requested from the Institute of
Philippines as to person, place, and time including anatomical Health Metrics of the University of Washington.
descriptions of injuries. We decided to limit the analysis of two Causes of injury can be classified into external and
datasets namely, PSA death registry and ONEISS, as these internal causes. External causes refer to the circumstances
contain enough information for classification into health. surrounding the death such as while driving a car or fall
The PNP data were limited only to crimes involving persons from a height. Internal causes are the physical manifestation
and were thus biased towards interpersonal causes of injury of the injury on the body. Both external and internal causes
(e.g. injury inflicted by another person) and self-harm (i.e. were derived from ONEISS; however, the number of
suicide). The database also did not contain enough descriptive deaths analyzed was much lower and covered only hospitals
information for classification into appropriate internal and participating in the surveillance. The internal causes were re-
external causes of injuries that would facilitate synthesis with classified to GBD internal categories. Two analysts reviewed
other injury databases. The results of this analysis will be the ONEISS diagnoses and physical examination columns
useful to guide prevention programs and resource allocation. for the classification. If multiple injuries were present, the
patient was classified under the injury with the highest GBD
Methods disability weight. Only external causes could be extracted
from the PSA data and were classified according to the GBD
Overview of the data sources external categories.
The Philippine Statistics Authority database contains The datasets were cleaned using Microsoft Excel and
individual records of registered deaths in the country. The Stata 12. Descriptive statistics such as mean and frequency
data are obtained from death certificates submitted by health distribution were generated for different indicators of person,
care providers to local civil registries. Local offices encode the place, and time. Death rates were also computed.
data; the national office then conducts validation and data
cleaning before releasing for public use. The database contains Ethical considerations
all the information recorded in the death certificate; however, The analysis was part of a bigger study to determine
for our purpose, only demographic and cause of death data the socioeconomic burden of injuries in the Philippines. The
were requested. There is a lag in validation, hence, only 2013 protocol for the analysis was approved by the UP Manila
data were available when we requested data in 2015. Research Ethics Board. In compliance with the Privacy Act,

VOL. 52 NO. 2 2018 ACTA MEDICA PHILIPPINA 181

 the top places with the highest death rates relative to the B. Time
population. Four of the provinces with top death rates for Ther
injuries were found in Luzon while the top provinces for terms of
Epidemiology of Injuries intentional causes were mostly found in Mindanao. No distributi
obvious pattern is found for deaths and death rates due to Decembe
falls. (Table 1). There als
days inju
the use of the secondary data falls under analysis of data
however,
for public health reasons. Permissions to use the data were
Fridays (
obtained from the agencies who own the datasets. Only de-
occur dur
identified datasets were used in the analysis.
number o
occurred
Results
admission
occurring
A. Person
8 PM to 1
In 2013, The Philippine Statistics Authority reported
40,072 deaths due to violence and injuries. This translated
C. Exter
to a reported death rate of 40.7 deaths per 100,000 persons
Exter
due to injuries. Majority (78%) were males and the age-sex
pyramid showed that a good proportion of deaths occurred according
among the young to middle age males. Mean age at death and othe
was 38.44 years old. Mean age at death of males was lower at were use
37.42 years (SD: 18.55) compared to females at 42.03 years categorie
(SD: 26.75). Only 36.1% were attended deaths or deaths seen From the
by a health professional. (Figure 1A). causes of
The 2014 ONEISS reported 44,839 injuries with 4,570 injury du
cases of admissions. There were 200 recorded deaths. Majority For wom
(70.42%) were males. The average age was 28.01 years (SD: transport
18.53). Age-sex pyramid shows that most injured persons other un
were males in the young adult age group. (Figure 1B). was the
could exp
B. Place nature. (F
Top provinces contributing to deaths due to injuries The
overall and for selected injury categories (road traffic, and was
intentional causes, and falls) were determined using the PSA causes du
data. Top provinces in terms of deaths per population were was retai
also identified. Although Metro Manila and Cebu registered data with
the highest number of deaths, the two areas were not among falls, shar
the top places with the highest death rates relative to the Figure
Figure 1. Age-sex distribution
1. Age-sex distribution of
of (A)
(A) Registered
Registered deaths due
deaths due
population. Four of the provinces with top death rates for to violence and injuries 2013 (n = 40,072) and (B) D. Intern
to violence and injuries 2013 (n = 40,072) and (B) Injured
injuries were found in Luzon while the top provinces for Injured individuals in ONEISS 2014 (n = 44,839, The
individuals in ONEISS 2014 (n = 44,839, 1 missing info not
intentional causes were mostly found in Mindanao. No 1 missing information not included in figure). open wo
included in figure).
obvious pattern is found for deaths and death rates due to
falls. (Table 1). distribution in number with small peaks in April, July, and
December. June registered the lowest number of injuries.
C. Time There also did not seem to be any pattern in terms of which
There did not seem to be an obvious seasonal pattern days injuries occurred more frequently. The highest number,
in terms of occurrence of injuries with an almost equal however, occurred on Sundays (16.69%) and the lowest on

Table 1. Top provinces in terms of absolute number of registered deaths and death rates for 2013
Overall injuries Road traffic Firearms, sharp objects and intentional causes Falls
A. Absolute number of registered deaths
Metro Manila Metro Manila Metro Manila Metro Manila
Leyte Pangasinan Cebu Cebu
Cebu Davao Del Sur* Cavite Negros Occidental
Cavite Isabela Negros Occidental Bohol
Iloilo Nueva Ecija Zamboanga del Sur Batangas
B. Death rates (Death per population)
Leyte Nueva Vizcaya Compostela Valley Batanes
Batanes Davao del Norte Bukidnon Mountain Province
Bohol Isabela Zamboanga del Sur^ Bohol
Misamis Occidental Cagayan Abra Cagayan
Eastern Samar La Union Misamis Occidental Misamis Occidental
* - including Davao City, ^ - including Zamboanga City

182 ACTA MEDICA PHILIPPINA VOL. 52 NO. 2 2018

 Others
admitted cases were considered, the most common injury
B. Admitted A. orAll
Trans
categories were open wounds, minor traumatic brain injury, injur
Epidemiology
moderate-severe brain injury, superficial Open
ofany
injury of wound(s)
Injuries
part Open woun
Superficial i
of the body, and fracture of the patella, tibia orMinor
fibula, traumatic
or brai
Fracture of h
ankle. (Table 2). Moderate-severeMinor trau
traum
Fracture of p
Superficial injury of a
Fridays (12.37%). Majority of injuries reported in ONEISS Fracture of c
occurred during the time between 8 AM to 7:59 PM. The Fracture of patella, tib
Moderate-se
Burn, no tot
highest number occurred from 4 PM to 7: 59PM. The lowest Fracture of hand (wri
Injury to eye
number occurred during 12 AM to 3:59 AM. However, the Fracture of femur,
Fractureoth
of r
death and admission rates were highest at night with highest Normal on e
Fracture of clavicle, s
Fracture of f
death rate occurring at 12 AM to 3:59 PM and highest
Internal hemorrhage
Others
admission rate at 8 PM to 11:59 PM. B. Admitted
Burn, no totalOpen
bodywoun
s
D. External causes of injury Fracture of face
Minorbone
traum
Moderate-se
External causes of death from PSA were analyzed Normal on examinati
Superficial i
according to sex. Due to the high number of unclassifiable Fracture of radius
Fractureanof p
and other causes of deaths, multiple imputation models Fracture of h
Fracture of foot bone
Fracture of f
were used to classify these deaths according to existing
Fracture of hipFracture of c
categories. Model inputs included age, sex, and region. From Internal hem
the baseline and imputed data, the common external causes Dislocation ofBurn,
should
no tot
of death for males were road and transport injury, injury Fracture of sternum
Fracture ofaf
Normal on e
due to firearms, and injury due to sharps/machinery. For Fracture of skull
Fracture of r
women, the most common causes were road and transport Others Fracture of f
injury, injury due to forces of nature, injury due to other Open wound(s) Fracture of h
Dislocation
unintentional causes, and fall injury. The year 2013 was
Superficial injury
Fractureofof a
s
the year a supertyphoon hit the Philippines which could Fracture of s
explain the high number of deaths due to forces of nature. Fracture of hand
Others
(wri
(Figure 2). Fracture of clavicle,
Open woun s
Superficial i
The ONEISS data was not analyzed according to sex Fracture of patella, tib
Fracture of h
and was not categorized by GBD categories for external Minor traumatic brai
Fracture of c
causes due to lack of ICD codes. The ONEISS classification Fracture of p
Burn, no totalMinor
body s
was retained andFigure 2. Distribution
it was found of death
to be similar to PSA deaths after multiple imputation of traum
Figure Injury to eyesBurn, no tot
data with road injuries as the main contributor followed by Figure 2. Distribution of
2. Distribution deaths after
of deaths after multiple
multiple imputation
imputation of
of
unclassified injuries
falls, sharp objects, and mauling. (Figure 3). (five imputation models) (A) Deaths Fracture
unclassified injuries (five imputation models) models)
unclassified injuries (five imputation (A) Deaths
Injury to eye
(A)of radius an
Fracture of r
Deaths among males (B) Deaths among females.
among males (B) Deaths among among females.
males (B) Deaths among females. Normal on examinati
Normal
Others
on e

Others
The
open wou
The highest
superficia
open wound(s),
fatality ra
superficiallevel, asp
injury
(Table 3).
fatality rates; ho
level, asphyxiati
Our
(Table 3). mainly co
males co
slightly o
injuries a
Our second
injury typ
Figure 3. Distribution of ONEISS registered injuries fractures
according to cause (n = 44,840). mainly come fro
with high
males compare
slightly on week
injuries and op
injury types we
Figure 3. Distribution of ONEISS registered injuries according to cause (n = 44,840).
Figure 3. Distribution of ONEISS registered injuries fractures of the
according to cause (n = 44,840). with high numbe
VOL. 52 NO. 2 2018 ACTA MEDICA PHILIPPINA 183
Epidemiology of Injuries

Table 2. Most Common Internal Causes of Injury based on ONEISS 2014

GBD category Count % Cum %
A. All injuries
Open wound(s) 28,107 62.70 62.70
Superficial injury of any part of the body 7,866 17.55 80.25
Fracture of hand (wrist & other distal part of hand) 1,786 3.98 84.23
Minor traumatic brain injury 1,036 2.31 86.54
Fracture of patella, tibia or fibula, or ankle 767 1.71 88.25
Fracture of clavicle, scapula, or humerus 733 1.64 89.89
Moderate-severe traumatic brain injury 693 1.55 91.43
Burn, no total body surface area reported 458 1.02 92.46
Injury to eyes 365 0.81 93.27
Fracture of radius and/or ulna 348 0.78 94.05
Normal on examination 348 0.78 94.82
Fracture of foot bones except ankle 261 0.58 95.40
Others 2,060 4.60 100.00
B. Admitted or Transferred Cases
Open wound(s) 1,711 37.44 37.44
Minor traumatic brain injury 592 12.95 50.39
Moderate-severe traumatic brain injury 414 9.06 59.45
Superficial injury of any part of the body 401 8.77 68.23
Fracture of patella, tibia or fibula, or ankle 223 4.88 73.11
Fracture of hand (wrist & other distal part of hand) 204 4.46 77.57
Fracture of femur, other than femoral neck 155 3.39 80.96
Fracture of clavicle, scapula, or humerus 146 3.19 84.16
Internal hemorrhage in abdomen and pelvis 105 2.30 86.46
Burn, no total body surface area reported 72 1.58 88.03
Fracture of face bones 48 1.05 89.08
Normal on examination 44 0.96 90.04
Fracture of radius and/or ulna 43 0.94 90.98
Fracture of foot bones except ankle 42 0.92 91.90
Fracture of hip 41 0.90 92.80
Dislocation of shoulder 38 0.83 93.63
Fracture of sternum and/or ribs 38 0.83 94.46
Fracture of skull 31 0.68 95.14
Others 222 4.86 100.00
Open wound(s) 26,396 65.57 65.57
Superficial injury of any part of the body 7,465 18.54 84.11
Fracture of hand (wrist & other distal part of hand) 1,582 3.93 88.04
Fracture of clavicle, scapula, or humerus 587 1.46 89.5
Fracture of patella, tibia or fibula, or ankle 544 1.35 90.85
Minor traumatic brain injury 444 1.1 91.95
Burn, no total body surface area reported 386 0.96 92.91
Injury to eyes 340 0.84 93.76
Fracture of radius and/or ulna 305 0.76 94.51
Normal on examination 304 0.76 95.27
Others 1,905 4.73 100

E. Internal causes of injury superficial injury of any part of the body. The highest case
The five most common recorded injury categories fatality rates; however, were for spinal cord lesion at neck
were open wound(s), superficial injury of any part of the level, asphyxiation and drowning, and severe chest injury.
body, fracture of the hand, minor traumatic brain injury, (Table 3).
and fracture of the patella, tibia or fibula, or ankle. If only
admitted cases were considered, the most common injury Discussion
categories were open wounds, minor traumatic brain injury,
moderate-severe brain injury, superficial injury of any part of Our secondary analysis showed that injured persons
the body, and fracture of the patella, tibia or fibula, or ankle. mainly come from the young age group. There were more
(Table 2). males compared to females. Reported injuries peaked slightly
The highest number of deaths were classified under on weekends and at night. Aside from superficial injuries
open wound(s), moderate-severe traumatic brain injury, and and open wounds in various parts, the common injury types

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 Epidemiology of Injuries

Table 3. Deaths and Case Fatality Rates of According to Internal Cause of Injury based on ONEISS 2014
GBD Category Death Total Cases CFR
Open wound(s) 79 28,107 0.281
Moderate-severe traumatic brain injury 56 693 8.081
Superficial injury of any part of the body 19 7,866 0.242
Asphyxiation and drowning 11 39 28.210
Minor traumatic brain injury 6 1,036 0.579
Fracture of patella, tibia or fibula, or ankle 5 767 0.652
Fracture of skull 4 81 4.938
Fracture of hip 3 66 4.545
Fracture of femur, other than femoral neck 3 260 1.154
Fracture of sternum and/or fracture of one or more ribs 2 95 2.105
Internal hemorrhage in abdomen and pelvis 2 187 1.070
Burn, no total body surface area reported 2 458 0.439
Fracture of hand (wrist & other distal part of hand) 2 1,786 0.112
Spinal cord lesion at neck level 1 2 50.000
Severe chest injury 1 12 8.333
Burns, >=20% total burned surface area 1 28 3.571
Spinal cord lesion below neck level 1 33 3.030
Crush injury 1 98 1.020
Fracture of face bones 1 204 0.490
Injury to eyes 1 365 0.274
Fracture of clavicle, scapula, or humerus 1 733 0.136
CFR – case fatality rate

were head trauma, fractures of the hand, and fractures of the be 77%.8 Data included in the death certificate were also
lower leg. Death data revealed provinces with high number of limited which prevented our use of the more specific GBD
deaths and death rates due to injuries. categories for external causes. For example, we used transport
The Global Burden of Disease group which tracks injuries only instead of further enumerating deaths of drivers
injury and disease burden also noted that injuries of four-wheel vehicles and passengers of two-wheel vehicles.
disproportionately affected the young adult and the male Secular events affected our death analysis with a high
population.5 Most of the findings were also consistent number of deaths due to forces of nature as a result of the
with published local literature granted that some of these supertyphoon affecting the Philippines that year. Death data
local studies were limited in scope to specific hospitals. A from other years could be analyzed to verify findings. Due to
retrospective analysis of Trauma Service patients in the the difference in the year of ONEISS and PSA data as well,
Philippine General Hospital from 2004 to 2007 also noted a reanalysis once updated death data are available could be
this trend.6 Similar to our findings, top causes included conducted to confirm similarities in patterns derived from
vehicular collisions, intentional causes such as stab wounds the two datasets.
and gunshot wounds, and falls. An older study on trauma Despite limitations, the findings in our analysis do
deaths conducted in Tarlac Provincial Hospital from 1995 have implications in the formulation of health policies and
to 1997 also described a similar age-sex pattern.7 They programs. Clearly, age affects risk of injury. Injury prevention
reported that vehicular collisions, burns, and falls as the top interventions such as education should be packaged
external causes of deaths. appropriately that will be relatable to the target age group.
To our knowledge, this is the first paper to analyze The high burden among the young also suggests that injury
available Philippine secondary data on injuries. A notable prevention will likely be cost-effective as life years gains are
difference in our analysis was the use of GBD categories higher due to the young age of potential injured persons.
as much as possible. An advantage of this system is that we The mapping showed provinces where injury death rates
can readily compare our data with other countries. More are high. These should be relayed to government officials
importantly, the system follows less anatomical categories in these areas to inform them of the situation. It is a given
compared to the system used in ONEISS. This system has that while all health facilities should be prepared to handle
some weaknesses though with some categories being overly trauma cases but improving health facilities in these areas
broad. Our analysis showed that there was a high number of should be prioritized due to the higher burden. High death
deaths arising from seemingly minor injuries such as open areas should also be considered as initial roll out sites for
wounds. Although, it could also be a problem in categorization injury prevention programs and emergency medical systems.
arising from limited data included in the ONEISS data. Injury patients were shown to be a heterogeneous
Our analysis only covered registered deaths, while death group but certain causes dominate. These dominant types
registration coverage for the Philippines was estimated to serve as low lying fruits for health programs. In this

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Epidemiology of Injuries

case, the immediate target should be transport injuries. Statement of Authorship

Drowning and firearms injuries are also leading causes of All authors approved the final version submitted.
death while falls contribute high morbidity. Targeting even
just these injury types will greatly impact injury incidence. Author Disclosure
In addition, health facilities and workers should have the All authors declared no conflict of interest.
capacity to treat common forms of injury (e.g. head trauma
and hand fractures). Further, mapping and sub-analysis of Funding Source
the epidemiology of these diseases should be conducted to This study was funded by the Department of Health
further tailor policies and programs. through the Essential Non-communicable Diseases Office.

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