Causes of Morbidity and Mortality

Injury Prevention and Control

Segui Gomez

Injuries = top five cause of death. Caused by exposure to some form of energy (kinetic, potential, electrical, chemical, or other) in amounts that exceed the individual tolerance threshold.

Injuries are not accidents, becuase they are preventable.

Injury is any damage to the body due to acute exposure to energy that exceed the individual's tolerance or absence of essentials (heat or oxygen).

Epidemiological Frameowrk

Injury epidemiology investigates the interaction among the host (injured), the etiologi al agent (energy), the vehicle that transmits the energy, and the physical sociacultural environment the interaction occurs.

Recall the public health model of a scientific approach to prevention: define the problem, idenitfy causes, develop and test inerventions, implement interventions and measure prevention effectiveness.

The essence if injury prevention involves keeping the etiologic agent from reaching the potential host, to reduce exposure.

Haddon Matrix

Sequence of events can be divided into three phases: pre-event (prevent the event), event (prevent injury while event is happening), and postevent (minimizing the adverse result after event has occrued).

Injury control strategies:

1. prevent initial production of the agent
2. reduce the amount of the agent produced
3. prevent the release of the agent
4. modify the rate or spatial distribution of release of agent from its source
5. separate the agent from the susceptible person
6. separate the agent from the susceptible person with a material barrier
7. modify the contact surface of the agent
8. strengthen the resistance of the person who might otherwise by damaged
9. counter the continuoation of the damage
10. repair and rehabilitate

Axioms

• injury results from interactions between the people and environment
• injury-producing interactions can be modified through changing behaviors, products, or environment
• environmental changes have the potential to protect the greatest number of people
• effective injury prevention requires a mixture of strategies and methods.
• public participation is essential for community action.
• cross-sector collaboration is necessary

Role of public health

Practicitioner

• Research: collect and analyze local data to identify injury pattern, trends, and risk factors. Introduce scientific methods to injury control
• Service: assist community organizations in analyzing data adn choosing countermeasures that are known to be effective.
• Education: inform public opinion and understanding
• Influencing legislation and regulation: assist in local policy discussions.

Agencies

• national leadership: fund injury research and train injury prevention specialist
• information collection: uniform data collection, reinforce data collection
• regulation and legislation: standards, regulations, government structures
• emergency systems: systems that allow emergency responses
• education: devise educational efforts, public support for certain behaviors.``