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Abstract
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The objective of this paper is to introduce the
epidemiology of injuries in China, and then consider the development of safe
communities in regard to injury prevention and safety promotion. The disease
spectrum has changed in recent decades in the People's Republic of China.
Both in cities and rural areas, injury has become the fifth leading cause of
death. At least 800 000 people die from injury each year, and 50 million
non-fatal injuries occur, of which 2.3 million lead to disability of varying
degrees of severity. The average injury-related death rate in China from 1990 to
1997 was 66 per 100 000, which accounts for 11% of total deaths. The potential
years of life lost (PYLL) of injury accounts for 24% of the total, and
disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) account for 17%. Main injury causes of
death, in descending order, are: suicide, traffic accident, drowning, falling,
poisoning, homicide, burn and scald, and iatrogenic injury. Considering
China's current injury status and its rapid societal change, injury
prevention and safety promotion need to be strengthened further, and there is a
special need for the development of Safe Communities programmes. The prevention
of injuries through safety promotion has been increasingly focussed on over
recent decades. The WHO Safe Community model is recognized as representing an
effective and long-term approach to the prevention of injuries at a local level,
and has been beneficially applied all over the world. A programme may cover
several aspects of injury prevention and safety promotion simultaneously, or
only include one or two aspects. In a Safe Community programme in China,
children, the elderly, cyclists and their passengers, and farmers should be
among the prioritized target populations. However, multi-focussed inter-sectoral
programmes have been shown to have additional effects to distinct sectoral
programmes. |