Statistics on disability pensioners is important for assessing injury burden

Abstract Introduction We have little information about long term effects of injuries resulting in disability. In addition to human suffering and reduced quality of life, these consequences of injuries inflict a heavy burden on the national economy. All persons in Norway aged 16 - 66 years are entitled to disability pension benefits from the National Insurance Administration (NIA) if their working capacity is permanently reduced by at least 50 % due to disease, injury or defect. The burden of injuries in terms of “New disability pensioners” (NDP) related to traffic injuries was assessed in a study for the years 1992-97 and in a follow up study for 2005-12. Methods Each year, a number of persons will be registered as NDP in the Disability register of NIA. Between 1992 and 2012 accident types were classified by an additional code, one of them denoting traffic injury. To calculate rates, the number of NDP are related to the number of persons in Norway on the 1st of January minus the number of persons holding a disability pension at that time (risk population) and are shown as NDP pr 100 000 of the risk population. Results The rates for NDP due to traffic injuries increased from 16.8 in 1992 to 23.0 in 1997, an average annual increase of 7.4 %. These rates were compared with the mortality rates in the age group 15-64 years due to traffic injuries from 1988-1993. The average time lag between an injury and getting a disability pension is 4 years. These rates were 9.3 in 1988 and 6.4 in 1993, an average annual decrease of 6.2 %. The follow up study for 2005-2017 confirmed more or less this increasing trend in NDP due to traffic injuries. Conclusions The rate of NDP due to traffic injuries is increasing while mortality rates for same age group is decreasing. This might reflect that our emergency medicine now saves more and more lives, however many of them ending up as disabled. We need to get valid statistics on disability enabling us to describe the burden of traffic injuries.