The quality of cause-of-injury data: where hospital records fall down.

Objectives: This research identifies the level of specificity of cause-of-injury morbidity data in Australia. The research explores reasons for poor-quality data across different causes-of-injury areas, including a lack of clinical documentation and insufficient detail in the classification system.

Methods: The 2002/03 hospital morbidity dataset of 593,079 injury-related hospital admissions was analysed to examine the specificity of coded external cause-of-injury data.