The diversity and span of unintentional and intentional injuries have lead to their influence upon all segments of the U.S. population. Injury deaths represent a problem of substantial impact cutting across age, gender, race, socioeconomic group, and geography to affect a diverse population. For the population aged 1-44, injuries are the leading cause of death. Among the elderly, the injury death rate is higher than that of younger populations. While cardiovascular disease and cancer are significant causes of U.S. mortality, the age distribution and contribution to potential years of life lost are greater for injury mortality.
Injuries remain important throughout the lifecycle.
As stated above, the diversity and span of unintentional and intentional injuries have lead to their influence upon all segments of the U.S. population. Injury mortality is representative of the health of the American population because of both its magnitude and the range of population it affects. The expanded use of E-codes will improve our access to injury data. Injury mortality has multilevel trackability with data sources ranging from local and state health departments to the National Vital Statistics System. Injury death rates vary among socioeconomic, racial and geographic groups resulting in an influence upon all segments of the U.S. population.