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Am Fam Physician. 2015;91(10):676a

Incorrect statistics. The article “Dog and Cat Bites” (August 15, 2014, p. 239) contained multiple errors in the first two sentences of the text and in the first sentence of the abstract (page 239). Dog bites account for 1% of injury-related emergency department visits in the United States, not 1% of all emergency department visits. Inpatient costs related to dog bites are estimated to be $53.9 million, but this figure does not include the cost of emergency department visits, as implied in the article. There are approximately 4.5 million persons bitten by dogs in the United States each year, not 4.7 million emergency department visits as stated in the article. The first sentence of the abstract should have read “Dog bites account for 1% of all injury-related emergency department visits in the United States and more than $50 million in inpatient costs per year.” The first two sentences of the article should have read “Dog bites account for 1% of all injury-related emergency department visits in the United States and an estimated $53.9 million in inpatient costs per year. Of the approximately 4.5 million persons who are bitten by dogs each year, approximately 316,000 are treated in the emergency department, and 9,500 are hospitalized.” The online version of this article has been corrected.

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