Dog Bite Injuries and Fatalities in the United States

Dog Bite Injuries and Fatalities in the United States

15 Years of Records Decoded

The Centers for Disease Control compiles a massive public health database named Wide-ranging OnLine Data for Epidemiologic Research, or WONDER for short. Their project provides a wealth of data for researchers; birth rates, cancer statistics, environmental variables - the list goes on. You can browse the topics covered, and query the system directly using the CDC WONDER web page.

Of course no epidemiological survey could help physicians without tracking the unfortunate number and causes of deaths in a given area. Beginning in 1999, WONDER implemented a coding system to track each specific cause of death called International Classification of Disease-10th Revision or ICD-10.^[1]

The most common causes of death vary significantly depending on how old the deceased person is. For example, in 2011, the leading cause of death for 35-44 year olds was unintentional injury, while cancer killed three times as many people in the next age group of 45-54 year olds.^[2]

The ICD-10 coding system has a code for dog bites. The code is W54, and represents injuries incurred through dog bites or strikes.^[3] To determine fatality rate trends, Puppycide Database Project reviewed CDC WONDER records from 1999 through 2011.

Morbidity data is just part of this story. In order to gain a more complete understanding of the rates in which people are hurt by dogs, the Puppycide Database Project used another Centers for Disease Control Database - the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, also called WISQARS. Our analysis includes twelve years of Non-fatal Injury Reports from 2001 through 2013. As with WONDER, WISQARS can be queried on the CDC's web site.

There are important distinctions in methodology between the two databases. Morbidity rates are determined through the compilation of death certificates. While there is variation from state to state in the process that causes of death are recorded, each number in the WONDER database is representative of a specific deceased individual.

In contrast, CDC describes WISQARS data collection in the following way:

The nonfatal injury data used in WISQARS are obtained from an expansion of the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) operated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The expanded system, called the NEISS All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP), began on July 1, 2000, and collects data about all types and external causes of non-fatal injuries and poisonings treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments (EDs)--whether or not they are associated with consumer products.^[4]

Since May 1971, CPSC has used NEISS to monitor consumer product-related injuries in its regulatory jurisdiction. In the year 2000, NEISS collected information from a nationally representative sample of 100 U.S. hospital EDs. The NEISS hospitals are a stratified probability sample of all U.S. hospitals (including U.S. territories) that have at least six beds and provide 24-hour emergency services. The NEISS-AIP data are collected at 66 of the 100 NEISS hospitals, which represent the nation's range of hospital settings. NEISS and NEISS-AIP hospitals include very large inner-city hospitals with trauma centers as well as large urban, suburban, rural, and children's hospitals.^[5]

These contrasting collection methods must be considered by the reader, particularly as readers seek to use data collected here in other projects. For our purposes, WISQARS data remains relevant despite reliance on statistical samples. Our concern is with trends, and particularly the comparison between similar trends.

Both morbidity and non-fatal injury statistics are for the United States only.

Our review of the data has provided the following results:

Section 1. Morbidity

Annually, a mean of 29.3 people were killed by dog bites and strikes during the 13 year analysis period. This average is based on the mean population during the fatal injury survey of 295,561,547.^[6]

Dog Bite-Related Morbidity, 1999-2011^[6]

Year	Deaths	Population
1999	25	279,040,168
2000	26	281,421,906
2001	25	284,968,955
2002	18	287,625,193
2003	32	290,107,933
2004	27	292,805,298
2005	33	295,516,599
2006	32	298,379,912
2007	32	301,231,207
2008	27	304,093,966
2009	32	306,771,529
2010	38	308,745,538
2011	34	311,591,917
Totals	381	3,842,300,121

There are two primary risk groups for dog bite fatalities. Newborns and infants through age four are one such group; the second is people older than age 55^[6]. Relying on intercensal Census data we determined that individuals in the two risk groups accounted for 27.8% of the population during the research period^[7]. Individuals in these risk groups represented 69.6% of total deaths. Adolescents and young adults face the lease risk due to dog bite fatalities. 15-19 year olds reported absolutely no deaths during the research period, while those aged 20-34 represented 3.4% of fatalities^[6].

A visualization of this data helps to demonstrate these risk groups, as in the figure above which tracks dog bite deaths in ten year age groups and is based on all data compiled through the years 1999 and 2011.

Individuals in the complete non-risk group, those of ages 5 through 54, represented 72.1% of the population^[7] while accounting for only 30.4% of canine related fatalities^[6].

A frequently relied upon method of contextualizing these and similar issues is a comparison with leading causes of morbidity. When viewed next to statistics for much more fatal phenomenon, the risks associated with even the most alarming of social problems can be better understood. As such, we have included the chart below, which compares the leading causes of morbidity to dog bite related deaths in the year 2011. Note that within the years studied, 1999 through 2011, 2011 has the second highest number of dog bite related deaths (exceeded only by 2010).

https://puppycidedb.com/analysis.html