April is Injury Prevention Month

Serious injury and death affect all of us. Many people are not aware that each year in the United States, injuries (intentional and unintentional) account for more than half of all deaths among persons ages 1–44 years of age.

Here are several other related statistics:

• There are more than 180,000 deaths from injury each year—1 person every 3 minutes
• Injury is the leading cause of death for people ages 1–44 in the U.S.
• An estimated 2.8 million people are hospitalized with injury each year
• An estimated 31.7 million people are treated in Emergency Department for injury each year
• Violence and injuries cost more than $406 billion in medical care and lost productivity each year
• 4.1 million people suffer a workplace injury each year
• 185 people (in the US) die each day from workplace injuries
• Workplace Costs for Unintentional Injuries/Deaths: $164.7 billion
• Injury related lost quality of life costs an additional $3,080.1 billion
• Total injury days lost: 80,000,000