2024-11-15 Request for Input on Discrepancy Between Traffic Death Definitions in Transport Statistics and Cause-of-Death Certification

[mortality-forum]

Dear Mortality Forum Members,

Could you please inform us how your national reporting systems handle the differences in frequencies (and their size, if any) resulting from the differences in definition of a traffic death in transport statistics and in cause-of-death certification?

According to the Glossary for Transport Statistics, a "person killed" in a traffic accident is someone who dies immediately or within 30 days after the accident, excluding suicides. In contrast, cause-of-death coding and reporting have no specific time limit for traffic-related deaths.

The WHO is collecting input from countries to understand how these differing definitions are managed. We are particularly interested in any studies or methods that have been effective in making the two definitions comparable or in explaining significant differences between them.

We would greatly appreciate input from mortality forum and MRG members by 6 December 2024.

Thank you for your time and contributions.

WHO team.