Injury prevention is an effort to prevent or reduce the severity of bodily injuries caused by external mechanisms, such as

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not deliberately caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that the event may have been caused by Risk assessment, unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Many researchers, insurers ...

s, before they occur. Injury prevention is a component of

safety Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...

and

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

, and its goal is to improve the health of the population by preventing

injuries Injury is physiological damage to the living tissue of any organism, whether in humans, in other animals, or in plants. Injuries can be caused in many ways, including mechanically with penetration by sharp objects such as teeth or with b ...

and hence improving

quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...

. Among laypersons, the term "accidental injury" is often used. However, "accidental" implies the causes of injuries are

random In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of definite pattern or predictability in information. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. ...

in nature. Researchers prefer the term "unintentional injury" to refer to injuries that are nonvolitional but often preventable. Data from the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, ...

show that unintentional injuries are a significant public health concern: they are by far the leading cause of

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

from ages 1 through 44. During these years, unintentional injuries account for more deaths than the next three leading

causes of death The following is a list of the causes of human deaths worldwide for different years arranged by their associated mortality rates. Some causes listed include deaths also included in more specific subordinate causes, and some causes are omitted ...

combined. Unintentional injuries also account for the top ten sources of nonfatal

emergency room An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pat ...

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 Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

modifications, and

enforcement Enforcement is the proper execution of the process of ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, rules, standards, and social norms. Governments attempt to effectuate successful implementation of policies by enforcing laws and regulations. En ...

/enactment of policies. Some organizations and researchers have variously proposed the addition of equity,

empowerment Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming strong ...

emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...

empathy Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on another person's perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share and respond to their experience. There are more (sometimes conflicting) definitions of empathy that include but are ...

evaluation In common usage, evaluation is a systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of Standardization, standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any o ...

, and economic incentives to this list.

Measuring effectiveness

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 A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are asso ...

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. Online databases, such as the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) allow both researchers and members of the public to measure shifts in mortality over time.

Common types

Traffic and automobile safety

Traffic safety and

automobile safety Automotive safety is the study and practice of automotive design, construction, equipment and regulation to minimize the occurrence and consequences of traffic collisions involving motor vehicles. Road traffic safety more broadly includes roadw ...

are a major component of injury prevention because it is the leading cause of death for

children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

and young adults into their mid 30s. Injury prevention efforts began in the early 1960s when activist

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American lawyer and political activist involved in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. He is a Perennial candidate, perennial presidential candidate. His 1965 book '' ...

exposed automobiles as being more dangerous than necessary in his book Unsafe at Any Speed. This led to engineering changes in the way cars are designed to allow for more crush space between the vehicle and the occupant. The

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency under the United S ...

(CDC) also contributes significantly to automobile safety. CDC Injury Prevention Champion David Sleet illustrated the importance of lowering the legal

blood alcohol content Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes. BAC is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume of blood. In US and many i ...

limit to 0.08 percent for drivers, requiring disposable lighters to be child resistant; and using evidence to demonstrate the dangers of airbags to young children riding in the front seat of vehicles. Engineering: vehicle crash worthiness, seat belts, airbags, locking seat belts for child seats. Education: promote seat belt use, discourage impaired driving, promote child safety seats. Enforcement and enactment: passage and enforcement of primary seat belt laws, speed limits, impaired driving enforcement.

Pedestrian safety

Pedestrian safety is the focus of both

epidemiological Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

and

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

injury prevention research. Epidemiological studies typically focus on causes external to the individual such as traffic density, access to safe walking areas, socioeconomic status, injury rates, legislation for safety (e.g., traffic fines), or even the shape of vehicles, which can affect the severity of injuries resulting from a collision. Epidemiological data show children aged 1–4 are at greatest risk for injury in

driveway A driveway (also called ''drive'' in UK English) is a private road for local access to one or a small group of structures owned and maintained by an individual or group. Driveways rarely have traffic lights, but some may if they handle heavy ...

and

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Hiberno-English, Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constr ...

s. Children aged 5–14 are at greatest risk while attempting to cross streets. Psychological pedestrian safety studies extend as far back as the mid-1980s, when researchers began examining behavioral variables in children. Behavioral variables of interest include selection of crossing gaps in traffic, attention to traffic, the number of near hits or actual hits, or the routes children chose when crossing multiple streets such as while walking to school. The most common technique used in behavioral pedestrian research is the pretend road, in which a child stands some distance from the curb and watches traffic on the real road, then walks to the edge of the street when a crossing opportunity is chosen. Research is gradually shifting to more ecologically valid virtual reality techniques.

Home safety

Home accidents including burns, drownings, and poisonings are the most common cause of death in industrialized countries. Efforts to prevent accidents such as providing safety equipment and teaching about home safety practices may reduce the rate of injuries.

Occupational safety and health

Occupational safety and health (OSH) is the science of forecasting, recognizing, evaluating and controlling of hazards arising in or from the workplace that could impair the health and wellbeing of workers. This area is necessarily vast, involving a large number of disciplines and numerous workplace and environmental hazards. Liberalization of world trade, rapid technological progress, significant developments in transport and communication, shifting patterns of employment, changes in work organization practices, and the size, structure and lifecycles of enterprises and of new technologies can all generate new types and patterns of hazards, exposures and risks. A musculoskeletal injury is the most common health hazard in workplaces. The elimination of unsafe or unhealthy working conditions and dangerous acts can be achieved in a number of ways, including by engineering control, design of safe work systems to minimize risks, substituting safer materials for hazardous substances, administrative or organizational methods, and use of

personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, elect ...

Other

The following is an abbreviated list of other common focal areas of injury prevention efforts: *

Bicycle safety A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. ...

Boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways s ...

and

water safety Water safety refers to the procedures, precautions and policies associated with safety in, on, and around bodies of water, where there is a risk of injury or drowning. It has applications in several occupations, sports and recreational activities. ...

* Consumer product safety * Farm Safety * Firearm safety *

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

and burn safety *

Impaired driving Driving under the influence (DUI) is the crime of driving, operating, or being in control of a vehicle while one is impaired from doing so safely by the effect of either alcohol (see drunk driving) or some other drug, whether recreational or ...

Poison control A poison control center is a medical service that is able to provide immediate, free, and expert treatment advice and assistance over the telephone in case of exposure to poisonous or hazardous substances. Poison control centers answer questions ...

Toy safety Toy safety is the practice of ensuring that toys, especially those made for children, are safe, usually through the application of set safety standards. In many countries, commercial toys must be able to pass safety tests in order to be sold. In ...

* Traffic safety *

Sports injury Sports injuries occur during participation in sports or exercise in general. Globally, around 40% of individuals engage in some form of regular exercise or organized sports, with upwards of 60% of US high school students participating in one or ...

safety

References

External links

WHO violence and injury prevention
* Handicap Internationa

Safe Kids Worldwide

After the Injury - Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia

Healthy Canadians

Canada's Consumer Product Safety Program

National Safety Council
{{public health Public health Biostatistics Safety Working conditions