The Norwegian national trauma registry: development process and essential data insights

Area of Science:

• Trauma care and epidemiology
• Public health surveillance
• Health services research

Background:

• Optimizing trauma systems requires understanding epidemiology, demographics, injury characteristics, and outcomes.
• The Norwegian Trauma Registry (NTR) was established to monitor and improve the Norwegian Trauma System.
• NTR was officially recognized as a national register in 2013, facilitating population-based data collection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline the establishment of the population-based national trauma registry.
• To provide an overview of selected data collected by the NTR.
• To assess patient-reported outcomes and return to work/education.

Main Methods:

• Data collected from trauma centres, acute care hospitals, and prehospital services in Norway.
• Local NTR databases linked to a central database, with data entry and validation by certified registrars.
• Descriptive statistics used for trauma patients registered between 2015-2023; Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) from 2022 assessed.

Main Results:

• 78,275 trauma patients recorded from 2015-2023, with increasing annual inclusion.
• Median age 41 years, 66.5% male; highest injury rate in 15-24 year olds.
• 21.3% had NISS ≥ 16, 13.4% had ISS ≥ 16; 47.2% reported anxiety/depression at 12 months post-injury.

Conclusions:

• The NTR has been successfully implemented across all Norwegian trauma hospitals.
• Comprehensive data collection supports trauma care improvements and research.
• Registry data highlights significant long-term impacts on patient mental health and return to work/education.