A construct validity analysis of the Abbreviated Injury Scale

Eastham, Jr, James N.

Affiliations

¹Emergency Health Services Department, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Catonsville, Maryland 21133

Abstract

This paper examines the validity of the AIS as a measure of four specific dimensions of injury severity. The analysis is based on comparing the AIS scores of 95 injuries selected from AIS-80 to the scores these injuries received on four unidimensional injury severity scales, namely: mortality risk, acute care length of stay, overall recovery period, and permanent disability/activity limitation. The unidimensional injury severity scale scores were based on the subjective estimates of a sample of physicians (n = 218) involved in the care of trauma patients. Based on bivariate and partial correlation analysis, results suggest that the AIS can be defined as a scale which measures both trauma related mortality risk and acute care length of stay. However, the use of the AIS as an indicator of trauma related recovery period and permanent disability is questioned.

Cited Works (5)

Year	Entry
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Cited By (3)

Year	Entry
1986	States JD. Adult occupant injuries of the lower limb. In: Biomechanics and Medical Aspects of Lower Limb Injuries. Symposium on Biomechanics and Medical Aspects of Lower Limb Injuries; October 29-30, 1986; San Diego, CA. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineering:97-107. SAE 861927.
1985	Agran PF, Dunkle DE, Winn D. Medical costs of pediatric motor vehicle trauma. In: 29th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 7-9, 1985; Washington, DC.127-136.
1985	Eastham JN Jr. The effects of AIS manual injury severity qualifiers on subjective estimates of injury severity. In: 29th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 7-9, 1985; Washington, DC.353-363.