Injury prevention

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Injury prevention is an effort to prevent or reduce the severity of bodily injuries caused by external mechanisms, such as accidents, before they occur. Injury prevention is a component of safety and public health, and its goal is to improve the health of the population by preventing injuries and hence improving quality of life. Among laypersons, the term "accidental injury" is often used. However, "accidental" implies the causes of injuries are random in nature. [1] Researchers prefer the term "unintentional injury" to refer to injuries that are nonvolitional but often preventable. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show that unintentional injuries are a significant public health concern: they are by far the leading cause of death from ages 1 through 44. [2] During these years, unintentional injuries account for more deaths than the next three leading causes of death combined. [2] Unintentional injuries also account for the top ten sources of nonfatal emergency room 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. [3]

Contents

Injury prevention strategies cover a variety of approaches, many of which are classified as falling under the "3 Es" of injury prevention: education, engineering modifications, and enforcement/enactment of policies. [4] Some organizations and researchers have variously proposed the addition of equity, empowerment, emotion, empathy, evaluation, and economic incentives to this list. [5] [6] [7]

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 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.[ citation needed ] 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. [8]

Common types

Traffic and automobile safety

Traffic safety and automobile safety are a major component of injury prevention because it is the leading cause of death for children and young adults into their mid 30s.[ citation needed ] Injury prevention efforts began in the early 1960s when activist Ralph Nader 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.[ citation needed ] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also contributes significantly to automobile safety. CDC Injury Prevention Champion David Sleet illustrated the importance of lowering the legal blood alcohol content 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. [9]

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 and psychological 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. [10] Epidemiological data show children aged 1–4 are at greatest risk for injury in driveway and sidewalks.[ citation needed ] Children aged 5–14 are at greatest risk while attempting to cross streets.[ citation needed ]

Psychological pedestrian safety studies extend as far back as the mid-1980s, when researchers began examining behavioral variables in children.[ citation needed ] 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.[ citation needed ] Research is gradually shifting to more ecologically valid virtual reality techniques.[ citation needed ]

Home safety

Home accidents including burns, drownings, and poisonings are the most common cause of death in industrialized countries. [11] Efforts to prevent accidents such as providing safety equipment and teaching about home safety practices may reduce the rate of injuries. [11]

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. [12] A musculoskeletal injury is the most common health hazard in workplaces. [13] 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. [14]

Other

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

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personal protective equipment</span> Equipment designed to help protect an individual from hazards

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, electrical, heat, chemical, biohazards, and airborne particulate matter. Protective equipment may be worn for job-related occupational safety and health purposes, as well as for sports and other recreational activities. Protective clothing is applied to traditional categories of clothing, and protective gear applies to items such as pads, guards, shields, or masks, and others. PPE suits can be similar in appearance to a cleanroom suit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safety</span> State of being secure from harm, injury, danger, or other non-desirable outcomes

Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automotive safety</span> Study and practice to minimize the occurrence and consequences of motor vehicle accidents

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 roadway design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Road traffic safety</span> Methods and measures for reducing the risk of death and injury on roads

Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, and passengers of on-road public transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational injury</span> Bodily damage resulting from working

An occupational injury is bodily damage resulting from working. The most common organs involved are the spine, hands, the head, lungs, eyes, skeleton, and skin. Occupational injuries can result from exposure to occupational hazards, such as temperature, noise, insect or animal bites, blood-borne pathogens, aerosols, hazardous chemicals, radiation, and occupational burnout.

Construction site safety is an aspect of construction-related activities concerned with protecting construction site workers and others from death, injury, disease or other health-related risks. Construction is an often hazardous, predominantly land-based activity where site workers may be exposed to various risks, some of which remain unrecognized. Site risks can include working at height, moving machinery and materials, power tools and electrical equipment, hazardous substances, plus the effects of excessive noise, dust and vibration. The leading causes of construction site fatalities are falls, electrocutions, crush injuries, and caught-between injuries.

Seat belt legislation requires the fitting of seat belts to motor vehicles and the wearing of seat belts by motor vehicle occupants to be mandatory. Laws requiring the fitting of seat belts to cars have in some cases been followed by laws mandating their use, with the effect that thousands of deaths on the road have been prevented. Different laws apply in different countries to the wearing of seat belts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act</span> United States federal law

The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was enacted in the United States in 1966 to empower the federal government to set and administer new safety standards for motor vehicles and road traffic safety. The Act was the first mandatory federal safety standards for motor vehicles. The Act created the National Highway Safety Bureau. The Act was one of a number of initiatives by the government in response to increasing number of cars and associated fatalities and injuries on the road following a period when the number of people killed on the road had increased 6-fold and the number of vehicles was up 11-fold since 1925. The reduction of the rate of death attributable to motor-vehicle crashes in the United States represents the successful public health response to a great technologic advance of the 20th century—the motorization of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Safety Council</span> American nonprofit public service organization

The National Safety Council (NSC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public service organization promoting health and safety in the United States. Headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, NSC is a member organization, founded in 1913 and granted a congressional charter in 1953. Members include more than 55,000 businesses, labor organizations, schools, public agencies, private groups and individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational hazard</span> Hazard experienced in the workplace

An occupational hazard is a hazard experienced in the workplace. This encompasses many types of hazards, including chemical hazards, biological hazards (biohazards), psychosocial hazards, and physical hazards. In the United States, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conduct workplace investigations and research addressing workplace health and safety hazards resulting in guidelines. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) establishes enforceable standards to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. In the EU, a similar role is taken by EU-OSHA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Falling (accident)</span> Cause of injury or death

Falling is the action of a person or animal losing stability and ending up in a lower position, often on the ground. It is the second-leading cause of accidental death worldwide and a major cause of personal injury, especially for the elderly. Falls in older adults are a major class of preventable injuries. Construction workers, electricians, miners, and painters are occupations with high rates of fall injuries.

Prevention through design (PtD), also called safety by design usually in Europe, is the concept of applying methods to minimize occupational hazards early in the design process, with an emphasis on optimizing employee health and safety throughout the life cycle of materials and processes. It is a concept and movement that encourages construction or product designers to "design out" health and safety risks during design development. The process also encourages the various stakeholders within a construction project to be collaborative and share the responsibilities of workers' safety evenly. The concept supports the view that along with quality, programme and cost; safety is determined during the design stage. It increases the cost-effectiveness of enhancements to occupational safety and health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traffic collision</span> Incident when a vehicle collides with another object

A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Traffic collisions often result in injury, disability, death, and property damage as well as financial costs to both society and the individuals involved. Road transport is the most dangerous situation people deal with on a daily basis, but casualty figures from such incidents attract less media attention than other, less frequent types of tragedy. The commonly used term car accident is increasingly falling out of favor with many government departments and organizations, with the Associated Press style guide recommending caution before using the term. Some collisions are intentional vehicle-ramming attacks, staged crashes, vehicular homicide or vehicular suicide.

When a person makes a claim for personal injury damages that have resulted from the presence of a defective automobile or component of an automobile, that person asserts a product liability claim. That claim may be against the automobile's manufacturer, the manufacturer of a component part or system, or both, as well as potentially being raised against companies that distributed, sold or installed the part or system that is alleged to be defective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical hazard</span> Hazard due to a physical agent

A physical hazard is an agent, factor or circumstance that can cause harm with contact. They can be classified as type of occupational hazard or environmental hazard. Physical hazards include ergonomic hazards, radiation, heat and cold stress, vibration hazards, and noise hazards. Engineering controls are often used to mitigate physical hazards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accident</span> Unforeseen event, often with a negative outcome

An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term accident implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researchers who study unintentional injury avoid using the term accident and focus on factors that increase risk of severe injury and that reduce injury incidence and severity. For example, when a tree falls down during a wind storm, its fall may not have been caused by humans, but the tree's type, size, health, location, or improper maintenance may have contributed to the result. Most car wrecks are not true accidents; however, English speakers started using that word in the mid-20th century as a result of media manipulation by the US automobile industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational safety and health</span> Field concerned with the safety, health and welfare of people at work

Occupational safety and health (OSH) or occupational health and safety (OHS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work. OSH is related to the fields of occupational medicine and occupational hygiene and aligns with workplace health promotion initiatives. OSH also protects all the general public who may be affected by the occupational environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Work-related road safety in the United States</span>

People who are driving as part of their work duties are an important road user category. First, workers themselves are at risk of road traffic injury. Contributing factors include fatigue and long work hours, delivery pressures, distractions from mobile phones and other devices, lack of training to operate the assigned vehicle, vehicle defects, use of prescription and non-prescription medications, medical conditions, and poor journey planning. Death, disability, or injury of a family wage earner due to road traffic injury, in addition to causing emotional pain and suffering, creates economic hardship for the injured worker and family members that may persist well beyond the event itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workplace robotics safety</span>

Workplace robotics safety is an aspect of occupational safety and health when robots are used in the workplace. This includes traditional industrial robots as well as emerging technologies such as drone aircraft and wearable robotic exoskeletons. Types of accidents include collisions, crushing, and injuries from mechanical parts. Hazard controls include physical barriers, good work practices, and proper maintenance.

National Safety Month

National Safety Month (NSM) is an annual month-long observance in the United States each June.

References

  1. ↑ Bonilla-Escobar, Francisco Javier; Gutiérrez, María Isabel (2014). "Injuries are not accidents". Colombia Médica. 45 (3): 132–135. ISSN   0120-8322. PMC   4225791 . PMID   25386040.
  2. 1 2 "Injuries and Violence Are Leading Causes of Death". www.cdc.gov. 2021-08-24. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
  3. ↑ "10 Leading Causes of Nonfatal Emergency Department Visits, United States". wisqars.cdc.gov. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
  4. ↑ Macpherson, Alison K.; Brussoni, Mariana; Fuselli, Pamela; Middaugh-Bonney, Tara; Piedt, Shannon; Pike, Ian (2015-07-25). "An evaluation of evidence-based paediatric injury prevention policies across Canada". BMC Public Health. 15 (1): 707. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-1986-9 . ISSN   1471-2458. PMC   4514983 . PMID   26208854.
  5. ↑ Giles, Audrey; Bauer, Michelle E. E.; Jull, Janet (2020-02-01). "Equity as the fourth 'E' in the '3 E's' approach to injury prevention". Injury Prevention. 26 (1): 82–84. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2019-043407. ISSN   1353-8047. PMID   31537617. S2CID   202703212.
  6. ↑ NHTSA. 2000. Safe Communities: The First Six Months. https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/firstsixmonths_0.pdf
  7. ↑ Geller, Scott (May 1, 2011). "The Human Dynamics of Injury Prevention: Three New E-Words for Occupational Safety". www.ehstoday.com. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
  8. ↑ "Data Analysis: Nature & Environmental Injuries in California". Freedman Law. 2022-05-03. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
  9. ↑ "CDC Injury Prevention Champion David Sleet Receives 2015 Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award". CDC Foundation. 24 April 2015. Archived from the original on 5 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  10. ↑ "Transportation Safety | Motor Vehicle Safety | CDC Injury Center". www.cdc.gov. 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
  11. 1 2 Kendrick, Denise; Young, Ben; Mason-Jones, Amanda J.; Ilyas, Nohaid; Achana, Felix A.; Cooper, Nicola J.; Hubbard, Stephanie J.; Sutton, Alex J.; Smith, Sherie; Wynn, Persephone; Mulvaney, Caroline (2012). "Home safety education and provision of safety equipment for injury prevention". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2014 (9): CD005014. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD005014.pub3. ISSN   1469-493X. PMC   9758703 . PMID   22972081.
  12. ↑ Alli, Benjamin (2008). Fundamental principles of occupational health and safety (PDF) (Second ed.). Geneva: International Labour Organization. p. viii. ISBN   978-92-2-120454-1 . Retrieved 1 September 2023.
  13. ↑ "Understanding the Risks of Musculoskeletal Injury (MSI)".[ dead link ]
  14. ↑ Alli, Benjamin (2008). Fundamental principles of occupational health and safety (PDF) (Second ed.). Geneva: International Labour Organization. p. viii. ISBN   978-92-2-120454-1 . Retrieved 1 September 2023.
  15. ↑ PLOS ONE Staff (2018-09-06). "Correction: Towards a deeper understanding of parenting on farms: A qualitative study". PLOS ONE. 13 (9): e0203842. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1303842.. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203842 . PMC   6126865 . PMID   30188948.
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