[A Community-based Study of Severe Trauma, Death, and Disability, from 2015 to 2020]

The Community-Based Severe Trauma Investigation System was established in 2019 to monitor the cases of severe traumas, non-traumatic severe injuries, and multiple casualties. Presently, it has released statistical results from 2015 to 2020. According to the investigation, total number of patients with severe trauma was 48,953 over six years, steadily increasing from 12.3 per 100,000 people in 2015 to 17.8 in 2019, and then decreasing to 16.4 in 2020. Categorized by age, the number of patients with trauma in their 50s was the highest until 2019, accounting for more than 20% of the total cases. However, the ranking changed in 2020, with patients in their 60s accounting for 20.44% and those in their 50s accounting for 20.36%. According to the mechanism of injury, traffic accidents accounted for more than 50% of injuries each year, followed by falls and slips, which were the second most common, at approximately 35%. The fatality rate of patients with severe trauma decreased from 65.5% in 2015 to 54.5% in 2020, and the rate of severe disability, which impairs daily life or causes a vegetative state, also decreased from 31.6% in 2015 to 25.4% in 2020. This investigation provides information on the occurrence and treatment outcomes of injuries, and presents regional results. As of 2020, the incidence rate (per 100,000 population) by province was the highest in Jeonnam (34.1 patients) and lowest in Seoul (8.9 patients). When standardized for age using the 2016 national population, Jeju (30.1 patients) had the highest incidence rate while Seoul (8.4 patients) had the lowest. Therefore, data from this investigation can be used to develop injury prevention measures tailored to the unique risk factors of each region.