1. Question: Why unintentional injury prevention?
Answer:
From 1992-1999 in the United States, unintentional injury was the leading cause of death for people aged 1 to 34 years, and is the fifth leading cause of death for all ages combined. Because injuries can be prevented, this blog was created to spread awareness and educate many about what they can do to prevent injury.
2. Question: What are the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States?
Answer:
- Heart disease: 631,636
- Cancer: 559,888
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
- Diabetes: 72,449
- Alzheimer’s disease: 72,432
- Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
- Septicemia: 34,234
3. Question: Who is most likely to suffer from unintentional injuries, male or female?
Answer:
Males. Male adolescents and young adults have a higher unintentional injury mortality rate than females. This disparity increases with age: males ages 10-14 were 1.7 times as likely to die as same-age females in 2004; among ages 20-24, this figure was 3.2. Rates are highest for males ages 18-24. After young adulthood, unintentional injury mortality rates decrease throughout the lifespan until age 70, when they peak again.
4. Question: Is there any racial disparities concerning unintentional injuries?
Answer:
Yes. Within minority communities, including African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, disproportionately high rates of unintentional injuries occur. This reflects in part inequities in socioeconomic status, type of employment, and hazardous exposures. Increased death and suffering caused by unintentional injuries in minority communities show racial disparities across different ethnic groups.
5. Question: What is the top three causes of fatal unintentional injuries?
Answer:
- Motor Vehicle crashes (41.8 percent)
- Falls (14.8 percent)
- Poisoning (13.9 percent)
6. Question: What is the five leading causes of injury death among children under age 15?
Answer:
- Motor Vehicle injuries
- Fires and Burns
- Drowning
- Firearms
- Suffocation
7. Question: Who is more likely to wear seatbelts? Men or Women?
Answer:
Female high school students are more likely to wear seat belts than same-age males: 7.5% of females reported that they “rarely/never wore” seat belts compared to 12.5% of males in 2005. Seat belt use increases as females get older, but decreases for males. These figures vary little by race/ethnicity. Seat belt use has increased over the last decade: 10.2% of students “rarely/never” wore a seat belt in 2005, compared to 25.9% in 1991.5 MVAs are less likely to end in fatality when seat belts are used.
8. Question: What is the difference between intentional and unintentional injuries? Please provide several examples of each.
Answer:
Intentional means someone did it on purpose. Examples can be: suicide, murder, domestic violence
Unintentional means it happened by mistake. Examples can be: motor vehicle accidents, falls, poisionings, drownings
9. Question: How many children are killed by guns?
Answer:
The answer depends on a number of factors, including age range, and whether homicide, suicide and/or unintentional-injuries are included in the figure. If the age range is 0-19 years, and homicide, suicide, and unintentional injuries are included, then the total firearms-related deaths for 2007 is 3,027 . This is equivalent to about 8 deaths per day, a figure commonly used by journalists. The 3,027 firearms-related deaths for age group 0-19 breaks down to 173 unintentional, 822 suicides, 1,972 homicides, 39 for which the intent could not be determined, and 21 due to legal intervention. Viewed by age group, 69 of the total firearms-related deaths were of children under 5-years-old, 335 were children 5-14 years old, and 2,623 were 15-19 years old.
10. Question: What is the most dangerous industry?
Answer:
In terms of death rates by industries, the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industry topped the death rates in 2007 with 27.3 fatalities per 100,000 workers, beating mining with 24.8, transportation and warehousing with 15.9, and construction with 10.3.
