Unintentional injuries in the home in the United States Part I: mortality

Carol W Runyan; Carri Casteel; David Perkis; Carla Black; Stephen W Marshall; Renee M Johnson; Tamera Coyne-Beasley; Anna E Waller; Shankar Viswanathan

doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2004.09.010

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Unintentional injuries in the home in the United States Part I: mortality

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Unintentional injuries in the home in the United States Part I: mortality

Carol W Runyan, Carri Casteel, David Perkis, Carla Black, Stephen W Marshall, Renee M Johnson, Tamera Coyne-Beasley, Anna E Waller and Shankar Viswanathan

American journal of preventive medicine, Vol.28(1), pp.73-79

01/2005

DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2004.09.010

PMID: 15626560

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Abstract

Unintentional injuries are a leading cause of death in the United States. It is unclear, however, what proportion of these injuries occur in the home. The purpose of this paper is to quantify and describe fatal unintentional injuries that take place in the home environment. Data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) were used to calculate average annual rates for unintentional home injury deaths, with 95% confidence intervals from 1992 to 1999 for the United States overall, and by mechanism of injury, gender, and age group. From 1992 to 1999, an average of 18,048 unintentional home injury deaths occurred annually in the United States (6.83 deaths per 100,000). Home injury deaths varied by age and gender, with males having higher rates of home injury death than females (8.78 vs 4.97 per 100,000), and older adults (>/=70 years) having higher rates than all other age groups. Falls (2.25 per 100,000), poisoning (1.83 per 100,000), and fire/burn injuries (1.29 per 100,000) were the leading causes of home injury death. Rates of fall death were highest for older adults, poisoning deaths were highest among middle-aged adults, and fire/burn death rates were highest among children. Inhalation/suffocation and drowning deaths were important injury issues for young children. Unintentional injury in the home is a significant problem. Specific home injury issues include falls among older adults, poisonings among middle-aged adults, fire/burn injuries among older adults and children, and inhalation/suffocation and drowning among young children. In addition, recommendations are presented for improvements to the NVSS.

Accidental Falls - mortality

Accidents, Home - mortality

Adolescent

Adult

Age Factors

Aged

Aged, 80 and over

Asphyxia - mortality

Burns - mortality

Child

Child, Preschool

Drowning - mortality

Female

Humans

Infant

Infant, Newborn

Male

Middle Aged

National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.)

Poisoning - mortality

Sex Factors

United States - epidemiology

Details

Title: Subtitle: Unintentional injuries in the home in the United States Part I: mortality
Creators: Carol W Runyan - Injury Prevention Research Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. carol_runyan@unc.edu
Carri Casteel
David Perkis
Carla Black
Stephen W Marshall
Renee M Johnson
Tamera Coyne-Beasley
Anna E Waller
Shankar Viswanathan
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: American journal of preventive medicine, Vol.28(1), pp.73-79
DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2004.09.010
PMID: 15626560
NLM abbreviation: Am J Prev Med
ISSN: 0749-3797
eISSN: 1873-2607
Grant note: R49/CCR402444 / ODCDC CDC HHS
Language: English
Date published: 01/2005
Academic Unit: Occupational and Environmental Health; Epidemiology; Injury Prevention Research Center
Record Identifier: 9984214816702771

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