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Injury in America A Continuing Public Health Problem (1985) / Chapter Skim
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1 Injury: Magnitude and Characteristics of the Problem
Pages 18-24

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From page 18...
... In the early twentieth century, infectious disease ceased to be a major cause of lost years of life before age 6S, leaving in jury alone in that position in the United States, exceeding cancer and heart disease combined. This report deals with injury that is severe enough to cause one to seek medical care or to be unable to perform usual activity for a day or longer.
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From page 19...
... Only after age 4S do other health problems -- notably heart disease and cancer -- cause more deaths than injuries. Even among the elderly, however, injury is an important cause of death; in fact, the death rate from injury tthe number of injury deaths per 100,000 of population)
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From page 20...
... . The societal costs of all injuries occurring in a given year have not been computed, but the costs of the largest class of severe injuries -- those resulting from motor-vehicle crashes have been estimated: With respect to long-term 000 Amer loans each year sustain · Motor-vehicle crash in jur ies in 1980 were estimated to cost society over S36 billion.
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From page 21...
... Additional, less easily measured costs include pain, grief, f amity and social disruption, and the social and psychos logic effects of disfigurement and long-term disability, such as those caused by severe burns, epilepsy from head injury, limitations of mobility from spinal cord injury, amputations, traumatic artier itis, and severe reduction in mental function from head injury. Injury and death result not only from unintentional events, such as motor-vehicle crashes and falls, but also from deliberate events, such as assault and suicide.
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From page 22...
... Mechanical energy is also the leading cause of nonfatal injuries, although the relative importance of specific causes differs somewhat from the relative importance of causes of fatal injuries. For example, falls are the second leading cause of death from unintentional injury, but the leading cause of injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms.
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From page 23...
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From page 24...
... Most early physicians spent much time managing wounds that occurred in civilian life and in warfare. Although treating injuries and wounds has occupied the primary attention of physicians since the beginnings of scientific medicine, coordinated research in the treatment of injury has been generally lacking.
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Key Terms

  • heart disease
  • head injury
  • injury deaths
  • societal costs
  • nonfatal injuries

  • direct costs
  • children aged
  • single cause
  • phase begins
  • infectious disease

  • spinal cord
  • jury attr
  • motor vehicles
  • respiratory disease
  • associated perception

  • energy source
  • mechanical energy
  • potential life
  • chemical energy
  • potentially injurious

  • largest class
  • managing wounds
  • excessive noise
  • event occurs
  • otherwise exposed

  • excessive exposure
  • injury control
  • acute exposure
  • coordinated research
  • injuries appear


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