Epidemiology of traumatic brain injury in Johannesburg--I. Methodological issues in a developing country context

Incidence studies in the developing countries present epidemiologists with unique methodological challenges for which novel solutions must be found. These challenges arise from archival inadequacies, hospital overcrowding, high violence rates, and limited research funding that necessitates low cost epidemiology. This paper describes the methods devised in Johannesburg, South Africa, in order to develop incidence estimates of determinable reliability of the morbidity and mortality arising from traumatic brain injury, and its etiology. Results are reported in Part II of the paper (p. 289).