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General earthquake
injury statistics based only on statistics from hospital emergency
departments tend to overestimate the number of people seeking hospital
treatment for earthquake-related problems since they also include
individuals who seek treatment for medical complaints that are not
earthquake-related. On the other hand, looking only at hospitals and the
problems they treat will likely underestimate the total health impact of an
earthquake since such information does not take into account other settings
in which people seek and receive treatment. These settings include (but are
not limited to) community clinics, urgent care centers, and Red Cross and
Salvation Army shelters. Of course, it is also difficult to obtain
documentation on those patients whose injuries are self-treated. According
to Durkin, injury statistics based solely on data collected from hospitals
may account for only 40% of the number of injuries that actually occurred
(e.g., the actual number of injuries in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake may
have been as high as 9,500 instead of the officially reported 3,800) (31). |