Worldwide, motor vehicle collisions have been producing more than 1 million deaths and 38 million injuries each year–losses projected to increase substantially by 2020. These high rates are partly the result of the lack of standards for vehicle crashworthiness in economically poorer countries. The high rates also reflect more collisions involving pedestrians and nonmotorized vehicles in poorer countries. However, even in the United States, motor vehicle crashes account for approximately 42,000 deaths and 3 million injuries a year. Because those killed are 4 decades younger, on average, than those who die of cardiovascular diseases or cancer, the toll on the nation’s economic and social health is disproportionately large. The mortality figures in wealthy nations would be much worse without the work of injury epidemiology. Epidemiologists have contributed data influencing the enactment of child restraint and belt use laws, more effective alcohol laws and enforcement strategies, and identification of characteristics of vehicles or highways that increase the risk of severe injury. It is therefore ironic that this subject is absent from the curriculum in many epidemiology training programs. Only a few schools cover the full range of issues regarding research design, measurement, and implications for injury reduction. (Author/publisher)
Abstract