National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control's mission is to provide leadership in preventing and controlling injuries, i.e., reducing the incidence, severity, and adverse outcomes of injury. The burden of injury is described in the bullets below. Injuries are largely preventable. Improving car designs, increasing seatbelt usage, wearing helmets, etc all have an impact in reducing the injury burden. The sad fact is that most injuries occur in young people. It is the leading cause of death for those aged 1 - 44. Dr. Ayub K. Ommaya then the Chief Medical Advisor to the Department of Transportation commissioned a report from the National Research Council in collaboration with Congressman William Lehman of Florida, who was than chair of the appropriations committee. 1985 NRC report was entitled Injury in America and recommended that Congress establish a new program at the CDC to address the problem of injury. Initially the program was supported with funds from the Department of Transportation. In 1990 Congress passed the Injury Control Act which authorized the program within CDC.

Injury in the United States

• Injury is the leading cause of death and disability among children and young adults (CDC 2001).

• In 2000, more than 148,000 people died from injuries. Among them (Miniño et al. 2002):

         o 43,354 died from motor-vehicle crashes;

         o 29,350 died from suicide;

         o 16,765 died from homicide;

         o 13,322 died from unintentional falls;

         o 12,757 from unintentional poisonings;

         o 3,482 died from unintentional drowning;

         o 3,377 died from fires.

• In 2000, more than 29.5 million people were treated for injuries in U.S. emergency departments (CDC 2001).

• Each year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans survive a traumatic brain injury (TBI)

• In 1988, the costs of injury were estimated at $182 billion. Inflated to 1995 dollars, costs approach $260 billion (Institute of Medicine 1999).