Safety and Injury

Jump to a section... Introduction Unintentional injury Regular use of seatbelts Use of child safety seats Drinking and driving Swimming and water safety classes Smoke detectors in homes Firearms in the home Domestic and intimate partner violence Domestic violence assault Direct care physician to population ratio Hospitalization rate for unintentional injury Age-adjusted mortality for unintentional injury Years of potential life lost (YPLL) due to unintentional injury Hospitalization rate for motor vehicle crashes Age-adjusted mortality for motor vehicle crashes Years of potential life lost (YPLL) due to motor vehicle crashes Homicide Age-adjusted mortality for homicide Years of potential life lost (YPLL) due to homicide

Intentional and unintentional injury ranks among the leading causes of death in the United States. In 2003, unintentional injury is the fifth leading cause of death among all persons.²² Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death and homicide is fourteenth. In the first four decades of life, injury is the leading cause of death.²³

When people die prematurely, years of productive life are lost posing a loss to society. Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) due to unintentional injury pose a very large burden on society.²⁴ The highest proportion of years of potential life is represented by unintentional injury. Nationally in 2002, 19 percent of the total YPLL was a result of unintentional injury. This represents an estimated 1,999,783 years of potential life that were lost.²⁵ Most unintentional injuries are preventable.

Rates of nonfatal injury, both intentional and accidental, are typically much higher than fatal injury. In 2003, the age-adjusted rate of intentional and unintentional injury in the US was 37 per 100,000.²⁶ The cost in terms of pain, suffering, and long-term disability associated with nonfatal injury are often tremendous.

Injuries are the leading cause of death and disability among people under age 35, and these injuries result in more than 150,000 deaths, 2.6 million hospitalizations, and 36 million visits to the emergency room each year.²⁷ In all, injuries consume an estimated $260 billion annually; the US government pays $12.6 billion of this expense each year.^28,29

This reality highlights the need to focus on safety and injury prevention in the realm of public health. There have been numerous public health campaigns targeting a reduction in both accidental and intentional injury. Injury prevention is difficult and needs continuous targeted interventions to specific age, sex, and race/ethnic-group populations to ensure that messages are designed to help each population better understand prevention strategies. Many injury prevention strategies are simple, if carried out, “use seatbelts when riding in a automobile,” “don’t drink and drive,” “have a working smoke detector in your home,” “if you have a gun in your home be sure it is unloaded and locked in a secure place.”

Unintentional injury:
Regular use of seatbelts

Regular use of seatbelts and child safety seats when traveling in automobiles has proven to be an effective method of lowering mortality rates and reducing injury. Texas state law requires that seatbelts be worn when an automobile is in motion. The National Highway Transportation Safety Agency reports that an occupant of an automobile is more likely to be killed if thrown out of a car in the event of a crash. Furthermore, the proportion of restrained occupants that were ejected during a crash was only 1 percent.²³ The Healthy People 2010 goal for the number of people wearing seatbelts in automobiles is 92 percent. Data were not collected in the 2004 or 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) regarding seatbelt use but this remains an import safety measure. In Bexar County, 89 percent of those responding to the 2002 survey indicated they do wear seatbelts on a regular basis. This is lower than the Healthy People 2010 goal for seatbelt use yet is a small improvement from 1998 when the proportion of seat belt users was 85 percent. People living in the East and Northeast sectors are somewhat more likely to wear seatbelts than those living in other areas of the county. Over 90 percent of the residents in the East and over 91 percent in the Northeast say they use seatbelts. The Northwest and West sectors follow closely behind with over 88 percent of residents wearing seatbelts. Approximately 87 percent of those living in the South and North Central sectors wear seatbelts.

Use of child safety seats

Texas state law requires that children be in a safety seat or restrained using a seatbelt when traveling in an automobile. The Healthy People 2010 goal is that all children age four years and under will travel in an automobile using child restraints. New traffic laws in Texas became effective in September 2005. Texas law now states that all children younger than five years of age or less than 36 inches tall, must be in a child safety seat.³⁰ Data were not collected in the 2004 or 2005 BRFSS about use of child restraints in automobiles, but this remains an import safety measure. In 2002, 93 percent of Bexar County residents responding to the survey indicated that they do routinely use safety seats or seatbelts for their children. Almost 95 percent of those who live in the East sector of the county use child safety restraints. The North Central sector had 94 percent of the residents responding they use child restraints. In the Northeast and the Northwest sectors, 91 percent are using child restraints when driving with their child in the car. Almost 89 percent of the residents in the West said they use child restraints.