Unintentional Injury

More than 400 Americans die each day from injuries due primarily to motor vehicle crashes, firearms, poisonings, suffocation, falls, fires, and drowning. The risk of injury is so great that most persons sustain a significant injury at some time during their lives. Many people accept them as “accidents,” “acts of fate,” or as “part of life.” However, most events resulting in injury, disability, or death are predictable and preventable.1

  • Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for people ages 1 to 44.2
  • In 2002, there were 82 million outpatient medical visits and 32 million emergency department visits for reason of unintentional injury.
  • The costs associated with fatal and non-fatal injury are higher than those of any other health problem, followed by costs of heart disease and cancer. If considering direct health care delivery costs only, injury is second only to heart disease.3

Prevention 1st is very concerned about preventing unintentional injuries in all individuals, especially those in the most vulnerable populations. Groups with heightened vulnerability to unintentional injuries are children under 5, adolescents and young adults, older adults, and individuals with disabilities.

Unintentional Injuries in Young Children

Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death among preschool aged children accounting for 36% of all death to children ages 1 to 5. What stands out among young children is a heightened risk for child fire play and fire/burn death, as well as the highest rate of non-fatal unintentional poisoning of any age group.

  • In 2000, 3.4 million children ages 4 and under suffered an unintentional injury requiring medical attention, costing $15.9 billion in medical costs and lost productivity.4
  • Motor vehicle crashes are the most frequent cause of unintentional injury death to young children, followed by drowning, fires and burns, and suffocation.2
  • Falls are the most common non-fatal unintentional injury in children.2

Unintentional Injuries in Adolescents and Young Adults

Unintentional injuries are also the leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults. Important concerns for this age group are the extremely high rates of death and injury from motor vehicles, as well as rate of death from firearms, which are the highest of any age group.

  • In 2000, 16.7 million adolescents and young adults suffered an unintentional injury, costing $114 billion.4
  • Adolescents and young adults have higher rates of non-fatal motor vehicle injury and motor vehicle death than any other age group.2 In fact, two out of every five deaths among U.S. teens are the result of a motor vehicle crash.5
  • Following motor vehicle accidents, leading causes of injury-related death in this age group include poisoning, drowning, fire/burn, firearms, and suffocation.

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Unintentional Injuries in Older Adults (65+)

In 2000, 5.5 million older adults sufferedan unintentional injury. Falls are the leading cause of injury death, as well as of non-fatal unintentional injuries.

  • Each year almost 40% of adults 65 and older fall at least once.6
  • The total direct cost of all fall injuries in this age group in 1994 was $20.2 billion.7
  • Following fall deaths, leading causes of injury death in older adults include motor vehicle accidents, suffocation, fire/burn, and poisoning.

Unintentional Injuries in Individuals with Disabilities

Rates of injury hospitalization for young people with developmental disabilities are estimated to be twice that of the general population and they are eight times more likely to die from injury.8,9,10,11

  • It has been estimated that fall injuries accounted for 60% of non-fatal injuries to individuals with disabilities, followed by fire/burn (7%) and transport incidents (5%).11,12
  • New YorkState provides mandates to service providers of individuals with disabilities concerning safety, but it does not provide a standardized curriculum, nor does it identify best practices for teaching safety to this population.
  • There is no consistent, standardized, age-appropriate safety education to meet the specific needs of this target population.

Leaders In The Effort To Prevent Unintentional Injuries Include:

  • CDCNationalCenter for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) ( )
  • Fireproof Children ( )
  • Healthy People 2020 ( )
  • National Institutes of Health ( )
  • Safe Kids Worldwide ( )
  • Prevention 1st (
  • National Fire Protection Association (
  • US Fire Administration (
  • CarolinasPoisonCenter (

References

1.Healthy People 2020 Topics and Objectives,

2. CDC WISQARS,

3. Gallagher SS, Christoffel T. Injury Prevention and Public Health. 2nd ed. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers; 2006:15.

4. Doll LS, Bonzo SE, Mercy JA, Sleet DA, Haas EN. Handbook of Injury and Violence Prevention. New York, NY: Springer; 2007: 8.

5. CDC NCIPC,

6. CDC NCIPC,

7. Englander, F.; Hodson, T.J.; and Teregrossa, R.A. Economic dimensions of slip and fall injuries. Journal of Forensic Science 41(5):746-773, 1996.

8. Leland NL, Garrard J, et al. (1994). "Comparison of injuries to children with and without disabilities in a day-care center." Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics15(6): 402-8

9. Dunne RG, Asher KN, et al. (1993). "Injuries in young people with developmental disabilities: comparative investigation from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey." Mental Retardation31(2): 83-8.

10. Ramirez M, Peek-Asa C, et al. (2004). "Disability and risk of school related injury." Injury Prevention10(1): 21-6.

11. Sherrard J, Tonge BJ, et al. (2001). "Injury in young people with intellectual disability: descriptive epidemiology." Injury Prevention7(1): 56-61.

12. Petrudou E, Tolma E, et al. (1997). "A Controlled Evaluation of a Community Injury Prevention Project in TwoGreekIslands." International Journal of Epidemiology26(1): 173-179.