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Affiliation
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Injury Prevention Center, Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205. |
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Abstract
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Twenty-three causes of injury mortality in children ages 0-14 in the United States were analyzed by age, race, sex, and state of residence for the years 1980-85. Motor vehicles caused 37 per cent of all injury-related deaths and were the leading cause of injury mortality in every group except children younger than one year, for whom homicide was the leading cause. Male death rates were at least four times female rates for suicide, unintentional firearm injury, and injuries related to farm machinery or motorcycles. The drowning rate among Whites was almost twice that of Blacks for ages 1-4, but in the 10-14 year age group the drowning rate for Blacks was over three times that of Whites. In general, the highest injury death rates were in the mountain states and the south. Between 1980 and 1985, the suicide rate in the 10-14 year age group more than doubled.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
This study by Waller et al. analyzed U.S. Government developed mortality data for the years 1980-85 to ascertain causes of injury mortality in children ages 0-14 on a state-by-state basis to determine trends and suggest likely causal factors.
METHODOLOGY:
This study involved secondary analysis of previously collected data. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) mortality tapes for the years 1980 through 1985 were studied to observe 23 categories of fatal childhood injury in the United States by age, sex, race, and state of residence for the six years examined. The expected number of deaths for each state, based on the death rate for the United States as a whole, was calculated by multiplying the six-year population estimate for the state by the total US death rate for each injury cause.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Motor vehicles caused 37 per cent of all injury-related deaths and were the leading cause of injury mortality in every age group except children younger than one year, for whom homicide was the leading cause of death. Male death rates were at least four times those of female rates for suicide, unintentional firearm injury, and injuries related to farm machinery or motorcycles. The drowning rate among whites was almost double that of blacks for ages 1 through 4. However, in the 10 through 14 age group, the drowning rate for blacks was over three times that of whites. In general, the highest rates of injury resulting in death were in the mountain states and in the south. During the years studied (1980 through 1985), the suicide rate in the 10-14 year age group more than doubled.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors contended that identifying states with the highest rates of a specific injury cause of death might suggest a likely causal factor. Examples were given with unsubstantiated hypotheses such as the following: the south and east have old wood houses which might contribute to more children dying in house fires in those states and a low rate of motor vehicle occupant deaths in Utah might be related to the Mormon doctrine of abstaining from alcohol. The authors noted that their study indicated that in some geographic areas or for specific population subgroups it is possible to identify injury problems that can be masked in larger, less specific studies having few injury categories. Thus, identification increased the likelihood that specific injury problems could be targeted and given higher priorities in prevention programs, leading to reductions in injury mortality.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Death Rates
KW - Early Childhood
KW - Middle Childhood
KW - Late Childhood
KW - Early Adolescence
KW - Infant Victim
KW - Child Victim
KW - Child Injury
KW - Juvenile Injury
KW - Juvenile Victim
KW - Injury Rates
KW - Injury Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Injury Victim
KW - Victimization Rates
KW - Victimization Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Accidental Death
KW - Statistical Data
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