Regional Disparities in Burn Injury Reporting: Pearls from the National Burn Repository

Abstract

The National Burn Repository (NBR) is divided into four regions for the purposes of data collection and reporting. Based on the 2010 U.S. census data, the states that represent the southern region have the highest overall population: 102,657,250 people vs 64,377,806 for the North. Despite being almost twice as heavily populated, the South has fewer NBR entries than the North: 53,629 vs 62,499. The South has also significantly fewer entries than would be expected based on its relative population size compared with the entire United States (chi-square test, P < .001). This finding may represent a disparity in access to burn centers in the South, fewer total burns, or a reporting bias.