Injury Prevention in Primary Care

Excerpt

Injuries, including unintentional trauma and deliberate acts of violence, are important problems in medicine today. From birth to 45 years of age, injuries are the leading cause of death; across all age groups, injuries rank fourth (1). In 1987, injuries caused the loss of 3.6 million years of working life, a greater loss than the combined total for heart disease, cancer, and stroke (2). An estimated $39 billion was spent in 1985 for the treatment and rehabilitation of injury victims; only cancer treatment cost more (3, 4).

Dictionaries define accidents as "unforeseen contingencies." Injuries, in contrast, are predictable events that