Injury prevention

Injury prevention is an effort to prevent or reduce the severity of bodily injuries caused by external mechanisms, such as accidents, before they occur. Injury prevention is a component of safety and public health, and its goal is to improve the health of the population by preventing injuries and hence improving quality of life. Among laypersons, the term "accidental injury" is often used. However, "accidental" implies the causes of injuries are random in nature. Researchers prefer the term "unintentional injury" to refer to injuries that are nonvolitional but often preventable. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show that unintentional injuries are a significant public health concern: they are by far the leading cause of death from ages 1 through 44. During these years, unintentional injuries account for more deaths than the next three leading causes of death combined. Unintentional injuries also account for the top ten sources of nonfatal emergency room visits for persons up to age 9 and nine of the top ten sources of nonfatal emergency room visits for persons over the age of 9. Injury prevention strategies cover a variety of approaches, many of which are classified as falling under the "3 Es" of injury prevention: education, engineering modifications, and enforcement/enactment of policies. Some organizations and researchers have variously proposed the addition of equity, empowerment, emotion, empathy, evaluation, and economic incentives to this list. Injury prevention research can be challenging because the usual outcome of interest is deaths or injuries prevented and it is difficult to measure how many people did not get hurt who otherwise would have. Education efforts can be measured by changes in knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs and behaviors before and after an intervention; however, tying these changes back into reductions in morbidity and mortality is often problematic. Effectiveness of injury prevention interventions is typically evaluated by examining trends in morbidity and mortality in a population may provide some indication of the effectiveness of injury prevention interventions.