Prevention of injury and violence in the USA

Abstract

In the first three decades of life, more individuals in the USA die from injuries and violence than from any other cause. Millions more people survive and are left with physical, emotional, and financial problems. Injuries and violence are not accidents; they are preventable. Prevention has a strong scientific foundation, yet efforts are not fully implemented or integrated into clinical and community settings. In this Series paper, we review the burden of injuries and violence in the USA, note effective interventions, and discuss methods to bring interventions into practice. Alliances between the public health community and medical care organisations, health-care providers, states, and communities can reduce injuries and violence. We encourage partnerships between medical and public health communities to consistently frame injuries and violence as preventable, identify evidence-based interventions, provide scientific information to decision makers, and strengthen the capacity of an integrated health system to prevent injuries and violence.

Figure 1. Top 10 leading causes of death for ages 1 to 30 years – United States, 2010

CDC. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). 2013 February 19, 2013; Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars.

Figure 2. Age-adjusted suicide and homicide rates by race/ethnicity – United States, 2010

CDC. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). 2013 February 19, 2013; Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars.

Figure 3. Rates of opioid overdose deaths, sales and treatment admissions – United States, 1999–2010

Adapted from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vital Signs: Overdoses of prescription opioid pain relievers -- United States, 1999–2008. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2011. 60: p. 1487–1492. Updated with 2009 mortality and 2010 treatment admission data.