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The CDC estimates more than 4.7 million dog bites occur annually and 800,000 Americans will receive medical care for injuries. Hospital discharge and emergency room visit data are methods commonly used to identify risk factors for dog bites as they are thorough and require less data collection efforts than capturing bite reports from a multitude of reporting agencies.
METHODS:
Bay County Health Department collected data from 799 dog bite reports provided by animal control services, local physicians, and other health care providers from January 1, 2009-December 31, 2010. Reporting agency information was collected based on the first agency to report the dog bite. Information collected included: victim’s age and gender, primary cause of bite, whether the dog was restrained at the time of the bite, geographic location of where the bite occurred relative to where the dog lived, and relationship between the victim and the dog. Data were analyzed for variables of interest and stratified by whether or not the reporting agency was a human healthcare agency (HHA).
RESULTS:
Human healthcare agencies reported 55% (n=438) of all dog bites compared to 45% (n=361) for agencies not associated with human healthcare (NHHA). Although HHAs reported 75% of bites to children 5 years or younger, HHAs reported only 54% of the remaining dog bites. Dog bites from dogs known to the victim at the time of the bite were reported from HHAs over two-thirds of the time compared to fewer than 40% of bites from dogs unfamiliar to the victim. As a result, HHAs also more frequently reported bites that occurred on the owner’s property; whereas, NHHAs reported 66% of bites from unrestrained dogs occurring off of the owner’s property.
CONCLUSIONS: Both HHAs and NHHAs are significant reporters of dog bites in Bay County; however, circumstances surrounding the bite may influence which type of agency reports the bite. Using only HHAs, dog bites to persons over 5 years of age, unfamiliar with the dog at the time of the bite, and bites occurring off of the owner’s property from unrestrained dogs would be underreported. Capturing bite reports from HHAs and NHHAs is needed to truly assess the risks associated from dog bites within a community.