A QUANTIFICATION OF PREVENTABLE UNINTENTIONAL CHILDHOOD INJURY MORTALITY IN THE UNITED STATES

This paper uses a database from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control to estimate the preventable fraction of unintentional childhood injury deaths in the United States. Unintentional childhood injury mortality rates were classified by external cause (including motor vehicle and other transport) over a 10-year period. Data was analyzed for each state and for four major geographical regions. In the principal analysis, a calculation was made of the fraction and absolute number of unintentional childhood injury deaths that could have been prevented annually if the mortality rate in the region with the lowest rate also existed in the remaining three regions. In another scenario, the lowest external cause specific unintentional childhood injury mortality rates from the states were summed to provide the ideal lowest conceivable unintentional childhood injury mortality rate from all causes. Ecological correlations between unintentional childhood injury mortality rates from specified external causes, median income and percent of the population with a college degree were made. Results showed that unintentional childhood injury mortality rate declined by 3.5% per year in the country as a whole. If every region of the U.S. had experienced the same injury rate as the Northeast, then one-third of all unintentional childhood injuries would not have occurred. Other scenarios suggest that up to two-thirds of all unintentional childhood injury deaths could be prevented. Across states, unintentional childhood injury mortality is strongly inversely related to median income. These results suggest that many unintentional childhood injury deaths would be preventable with the means and resources available in the Northeast.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13538047
• Corporate Authors:

  BMJ Publishing Group

  BMJ House, Tavistock Square
  London WC1H 9JR,   United Kingdom 
• Authors:
  • Philippakis, A
  • Hemenway, D
  • Alexe, D M
  • Dessypris, N
  • Spyridopoulos, T
  • Petridou, E
• Publication Date: 2004-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 79-82
• Serial:
  • Injury Prevention
  • Volume: 10
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
  • ISSN: 1353-8047
  • EISSN: 1475-5785
  • Serial URL: http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Children; Correlation analysis; Fatalities; Income; Injury rates; Prevention; Regions; States; Statistical analysis
• Geographic Terms: Northeastern United States
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; I81: Accident Statistics; I84: Personal Injuries;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00975100
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 19 2004 12:00AM