OPTIMUM RECALL PERIOD FOR REPORTING PERSONS INJURED IN MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS

Details of injury on accident reports were compared with those later remembered by the victims in interviews, to determine if the recall period could be increased without jeopardizing accuracy, and to identify a possible optimum length of recall time. A sample was selected from persons involved in injury-producing motor vehicle accidents in Durham, Orange, and Wake counties of North Carolina, February 1966-February 1967. Detailed statistical data are tabulated. The study indicated that the optimum recall period for estimating the total number of persons injured in motor vehicle accidents is less than three months. This is a conservative choice, since the bias component of relative root mean square error, which is a function of the ability of a responder to recall a motor vehicle injury, increases over time at a rate greater than that estimated from the methodology study.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vital and Health Statistics, Data Evaluation and Methods Res., Series 2, Number 50.
• Corporate Authors:

  National Center for Health Statistics

  3700 East-West Highway
  Hyattsville, MD  United States  20782
• Authors:
  • Cash, W S
  • Moss, A J
• Publication Date: 1972

Media Info

• Pagination: 39 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash reports; Data collection; Injuries; Interviewing; Statistics
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00386863
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: HSM-72-1050, HS-029 262U
• Files: HSL, USDOT
• Created Date: Jul 30 1984 12:00AM