Introduction

Quantifying diseases or health conditions in populations is a core domain in epidemiology. In addition, measuring health status can facilitate the understanding of the impact of healthcare management strategies and health policies.

Measuring disease frequency in populations requires stipulation of diagnostic criteria or case definition. For the purpose of this review, traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is defined as a lesion of traumatic nature within the spinal cord that results in the disruption of nerve fibre bundles that convey ascending sensory and descending motor information (Raineteau and Schwab 2001; Kraus et al. 1975).

Given the paucity of reviews on measures of frequency of traumatic SCI in populations, we sought to systematically review the literature with respect to the estimations of incidence, prevalence, and etiology of traumatic SCI in different countries worldwide and distinctive time periods. This review provides up to date knowledge of the global incidence and prevalence, and cause related data of traumatic SCI for clinical and policy comparisons.

The methods used for the development of this epidemiological review deviatesfrom the traditional SCIRE methods (see the SCIRE Methods section) that primarily focuson studies testing an intervention or evaluating the psychometric properties of an outcome measure. Specifically, this chapterincludesonly original articles that properly estimate the incidence, prevalence, or causesof traumatic SCI among adults (≥18 years). Case reports, editorial articles and meeting abstracts were excluded. 

Furlan JC, Krassioukov A, Miller WC, Sakakibara BM (2012). Epidemiology of Traumatic SCI. In: Eng JJ, Teasell RW, Miller WC, Wolfe DL, Townson AF, Hsieh JTC, Connolly SJ, Mehta S, Sakakibara BM, editors. Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Evidence. Volume 4.0. Vancouver: p. 1-16.

We would like to acknowledge previous contributor: Erik von Elm