80 Percent of Young Americans Die from Unintentional Injuries and Violence: CDC

Around 80 percent deaths in the United States occur due to unintentional injuries and accidents, finds a study.

Recently, experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) observed death rates of Americans aged between one and 30 and found 79 percent of them drowned, overdosed on drugs and died of injuries from falls and car crashes. Only 20 percent of the total deaths were related to heart diseases and cancer and the remaining one percent were caused by infections. Majority of these deaths are mostly preventable, say the agency' officials, reports the Live Science News.

Their reports revealed that in 2010, unintentional injuries, suicide and homicide were the top three causes for the death of young individuals. During the same year, nearly 121,000 of all deaths occurred in people of all age groups from unintentional injuries and 55,000 deaths were associated with violent attacks and crime.  The estimated annual expenditure on healthcare and loss of work productivity accounted for more than $500 billion. These costs did not take into account non-medical treatment charges, legal fees and indirect costs of violence and injuries.  

In the following year, the CDC recorded over two million injuries in older adults and 20 percent of these cases resulted in serious fractures and head injuries. Many seniors who sustained injuries developed mobility issues and had high risk of premature death.

These findings highlight the need to devise strategies to minimize the risk rates for injuries and deaths from violence.

"Injuries and violence are not accidents and are not inevitable. They can be prevented. Yet, although figures in public health maintain a common understanding of the definition, causes, and solutions to injuries and violence, this recognition might not be widely accepted by other audiences, including policy makers, clinical health professionals, and the public," said Tamara M. Haegerich, study author and researcher at the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in a news release.

The authors urge people to adhere to traffic rules and follow safety practices like wearing seat belts and child safety belts to curb incidences of fatal accidents. In addition, they said other intervention techniques like counseling, violence prevention program and giving therapeutic care to those in juvenile incarceration also bring down crime rates and injuries.

More information is available online in the journal Lancet.