The Epidemiology of Unintentional and Violence-Related Injury Morbidity and Mortality among Children and Adolescents in the United States

Ballesteros, Michael F.; Williams, Dionne D.; Mack, Karin A.; Simon, Thomas R.; Sleet, David A.

doi:10.3390/ijerph15040616

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessArticle

The Epidemiology of Unintentional and Violence-Related Injury Morbidity and Mortality among Children and Adolescents in the United States

Michael F. Ballesteros

^1,*,

¹,

¹,

² and

^3,4

Division of Analysis, Research and Practice Integration, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA

Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA

The Bizzell Group, LLC, Lanham, MD 20706, USA

⁴

Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(4), 616; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040616

Received: 6 February 2018 / Revised: 20 March 2018 / Accepted: 21 March 2018 / Published: 28 March 2018

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Child Injury Prevention 2017)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

Injuries and violence among young people have a substantial emotional, physical, and economic toll on society. Understanding the epidemiology of this public health problem can guide prevention efforts, help identify and reduce risk factors, and promote protective factors. We examined fatal and nonfatal unintentional injuries, injuries intentionally inflicted by other (i.e., assaults and homicides) among children ages 0–19, and intentionally self-inflicted injuries (i.e., self-harm and suicides) among children ages 10–19. We accessed deaths (1999–2015) and visits to emergency departments (2001–2015) for these age groups through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), and examined trends and differences by age, sex, race/ethnicity, rural/urban status, and injury mechanism. Almost 13,000 children and adolescents age 0–19 years died in 2015 from injury and violence compared to over 17,000 in 1999. While the overall number of deaths has decreased over time, there were increases in death rates among certain age groups for some categories of unintentional injury and for suicides. The leading causes of injury varied by age group. Our results indicate that efforts to reduce injuries to children and adolescents should consider cause, intent, age, sex, race, and regional factors to assure that prevention resources are directed at those at greatest risk. View Full-Text

Keywords: injury; homicide; suicide; children; adolescents; epidemiology

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Ballesteros, M.F.; Williams, D.D.; Mack, K.A.; Simon, T.R.; Sleet, D.A. The Epidemiology of Unintentional and Violence-Related Injury Morbidity and Mortality among Children and Adolescents in the United States. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 616. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040616

AMA Style

Ballesteros MF, Williams DD, Mack KA, Simon TR, Sleet DA. The Epidemiology of Unintentional and Violence-Related Injury Morbidity and Mortality among Children and Adolescents in the United States. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018; 15(4):616. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040616

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ballesteros, Michael F., Dionne D. Williams, Karin A. Mack, Thomas R. Simon, and David A. Sleet. 2018. "The Epidemiology of Unintentional and Violence-Related Injury Morbidity and Mortality among Children and Adolescents in the United States" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 15, no. 4: 616. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040616

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

The Epidemiology of Unintentional and Violence-Related Injury Morbidity and Mortality among Children and Adolescents in the United States

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI