Our
mission is to reduce the number of injuries and deaths due to
injuries,
through prevention, improved trauma care, and improved rehabilitation.
Trauma Foundation
SF General Hospital
Bldg 1 Rm 300
San Francisco, CA 94110
Phone:415/821-8209
Fax: 415/821-8202
email: tf@tf.org
At a time when economists predict double-digit
increases in health care expenditures, I have a solution: injury prevention. At
a time when we are looking for ways to address disparities in health care, I
have a solution: injury prevention. At a time when we are looking for ways to
protect our children from harm, I have a solution: injury prevention. The next
time someone challenges us on the propriety of addressing injury as a public
health problem, point out that if something kills people, it's our
responsibility as public health leaders to find a solution."
-- Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, Exec Director APHA (AJPH 4/2004
94(4))
April
22, 2004
The Burden of Injuries in America
One
of our recent home pages addressed the daunting tragedy of war-related civilian
injuries in Iraq. We would now like to focus on a significant problem in our own
country, on our streets, in our homes, in our backyards. It is the unrecognized,
costly, and painful "burden of injuries" here in the United States. Ask Americans what the leading causes of death or
health problems are in the United States, and they are likely to tell you
cancer, heart disease, obesity, smoking. Most would not include injuries in this
list; most might not even think of injuries as a category in its own right, not
to mention a leading cause of death and disability. 
Yet the facts are that injury is indeed among the leading causes of death. In fact, injuries are the leading cause of death for those under 35 years of age and the fourth leading cause across all age groups. Injuries exact a high toll on our society, causing pain and suffering for friends, family, and caregivers, as well as losses in productivity. In addition, injuries cost billions of dollars for medical treatment and rehabilitation.
A recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR Jan 16, 2004/53(01);1-4) noted that:
- injury-attributable medical expenditures cost as much as $117 billion in 2000, approximately 10% of total U.S. medical expenditures.
Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that similar expenditures:
- for cancer were $60 billion in 2002.
- for heart disease and stroke are projected to be $209 billion in 2003.
Yet funding for injury prevention and research is woefully lacking. For example, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received a $7.1 billion dollar funding level for fiscal year 2004. Of that,
- chronic disease prevention (addressing such health concerns as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease) received $853 million
- while injury prevention received just $154 million.
Unlike for other diseases and health problems, there is no institute for traumatic injury, and as such no approximation of the level of funding for research and prevention for injury as there is for other health issues. In fact, it is difficult to determine the current level of funding for traumatic injury-related death and injury since various institutes, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), do not specifically identify injury-related issues. Even NIH, in its current "Estimates of Funding for Various Diseases, Conditions, research Areas" does not list traumatic injury as a research or disease area.
Clearly, injuries deserve increased federal attention backed up by adequate funding, so that public health advocates and professionals can do the work of:
- defining the problem
- identifying risk and protective factors
- developing and testing prevention strategies
- assuring the widespread adoption of effective prevention strategies.
In an environment of shrinking budgets and the erosion of public and nonprofit safety nets, preventing costly injuries and the pain and suffering they cause makes sense for the short and long term.
References & Resources
10 Leading Causes of Death--from The Injury Fact Book
2001-2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
CDC, FY 2004 CDC/ATSDR Appropriation Fact Sheet, Jan. 23, 2004
Preventing Heart Disease and Stroke, CDC
Cancer Control, CDC
Trauma Foundation's
Index to Injury Prevention web sites
 |
 |
|---|