Fatal Injuries Among Children By Race and Ethnicity--United States, 1999-2002

Among persons in the United States 1-19 years of age, unintentional injury, homicide, and suicide are, respectively, the first, second, and fourth leading causes of death, with minority populations representing the highest rates. How differences in rates between white and minority children are affected by age and how previously unreported injury mechanisms contribute most to the differences are discussed. The authors present fatal injury data for children in the United States by injury mechanism and race/ethnicity between 1999-2002. Injury mortality trends for 1982-2002 by race/ethnicity are provided. CDC's National Vital Statistics System-reported death certificates provided fatal injury data derivation. Blacks and American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) had consistently higher total injury death rates among infants under one year of age during 1999-2002 than other racial/ethnic populations. Compared with white infants, both populations had more than double the injury death rate. AI/AN infants had the highest motor-vehicle (MV)-traffic death rate, while black infants had the highest unintentional suffocation and homicide rates. The highest injury death rates were among blacks and AI/ANs, for children of 1-9 years. AI/ANs had the highest MV-traffic drowning and death rates among children of 1-9 years, while blacks had the highest homicide and fire/burn death rates among children of 1-9 years. Compared to whites, AI/ANs and blacks consistently had, among children of 10-19 years, higher total injury death rates. AI/ANs had the highest MV-traffic death and suicide rates among people aged 10-19 years, and blacks had the highest homicide rates among people aged 10-19 years. There was no decline in injury mortality rate disparity by race/ethnicity seen in 1982-1985 during the 1999-2002 period. Between white and minority children, there are still signficant injury rate disparities, with disparities varying by injury mechanism and age. Whereas AI/ANs and blacks had consistently higher fatal injury risk than other racial/ethnic populations, Hispanics and Asian/Pacific Islanders consistently had lower risk. For each type of injury, environmental modification, regulatory, and education strategies (e.g. swimming pool fencing, safety-belt laws, and home visitation programs) have been developed for use by government agencies and health-care providers.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00910031
• Authors:
  • Bernard, Stephanie J
  • Paulozzi, Leonard J
  • Wallace, LJ David
• Publication Date: 2007-5-18

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 1-16
• Serial:
  • Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
  • Volume: 56
  • Issue Number: SS05
  • Publisher: Department of Health and Human Services
  • ISSN: 0149-2195
  • EISSN: 1545-861x
  • Serial URL: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Asians; Blacks; Burns (Injuries); Children; Crash injuries; Crash injury research; Drowning; Fatalities; Fire; Governments; Health care; Hispanics; Homicide; Injuries; Inuit; Minorities; Native Americans; Persons by race and ethnicity; Race; Risk assessment; Suicide; Whites
• Uncontrolled Terms: Disparity; Ethnicity; Injury mechanism; Mortality; Motor vehicle accidents; Suffocation; Traffic mortality
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01055445
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 23 2007 1:00PM