PHHE 295. Chapter 15. Injuries as a Community Health Problem

PHHE 295

Chapter 15: Injuries as a Community Health Problem

Chapter Objectives

1)      Describe the importance of injuries as a community health problem.

2)      Explain why the terms accidents and safety have been replaced by the currently more acceptable terms unintentional injuries, injury prevention, and injury control when dealing with such occurrences.

3)      Briefly explain the difference between intentional and unintentional injuries and provide examples of each.

4)      List the four elements usually included in the definition of the term unintentional injury.

5)      Summarize the epidemiology of unintentional injuries.

6)      List strategies for the prevention and control of unintentional injuries.

7)      Explain how education, regulation, automatic protection, and litigation can reduce the number and seriousness of unintentional injuries.

8)      Define the term intentional injuries and provide examples of behavior that results in intentional injuries.

9)      Describe the scope of intentional injuries as a community health problem in the United States.

10)  List some contributing factors to domestic violence and some strategies to reducing it.

11)  List some of the contributing factors to the increase in violence related to youth gangs and explain what communities can do to reduce this level of violence.

12)  Discuss local, state, and national resources for preventing or controlling intentional injuries.

Key Terms

·         Injury: Physical damage to the body resulting from mechanical, chemical, thermal, or other environmental energy.

·         Unintentional Injury: An injury that occurred without anyone intending that harm to be done.

·         Intentional Injury: An injury that is purposely inflicted, either by the victim or by another.

·         Injury Prevention: An organized effort to prevent injuries or to minimize their severity.

·         Unsafe Act: Any behavior that would increase the probability of an injury occurring.

·         Unsafe Condition: Any environmental factor or set of factors that would increase the probability of an injury occurring.

·         Hazard: An unsafe act or condition.

·         Fatal Injury: An injury that results in one or more deaths.

·         Disabling Injury: An injury causing any restriction of normal activity beyond the day of the injury’s occurrence.

·         Model for Unintentional Injuries: The public health triangle modified to indicate energy as the causative agent of injuries.

·         Injury Prevention Education: The process of changing people’s health-directed behavior so as to reduce unintentional injuries.

·         Regulation: The enactment and enforcement of laws to control conduct.

·         Automatic Protection: The modification of a product or environment so as to reduce unintentional injuries.

·         Litigation: The process of seeking justice for injury through courts.

·         Family Violence: The use of physical force by one family member against another, with the intent to hurt, injure, or cause death.

·         Child Maltreatment: An act or failure to act by a parent, caretaker, or other person as defined under state law that results in physical abuse, neglect, medical neglect, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, or an act or failure to act that presents an imminent risk of serious harm to a child.

·         Child Abuse: The intentional physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual mistreatment of a minor.

·         Child Neglect: The failure of a parent or guardian to care for or otherwise provide the necessary subsistence for a child.

·         Intimate Partner Violence: Rape, physical assault, or stalking perpetrated by current or former dates, spouses, or cohabiting partners.

·         Youth Gang: An association of peers, bound by mutual interests and identifiable lines of authority, whose acts generally include illegal activity and control over a territory or an enterprise.

Chapter Summary

·         Injuries are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States.

·         Unintentional and intentional injuries represent a major community health problem, not only because of the loss of life but also because of lost productivity, medical costs, and the increase in the number of disabled Americans.

·         Unintentional injuries are unplanned events that are usually preceded by an unsafe act or condition. They are often accompanied by economic loss, and they interrupt the efficient completion of a task.

·         More fatal and nonfatal unintentional injuries occur in the home than at any other location.

·         Unintentional injuries occur across all age groups; however, they are the leading cause of death for younger Americans.

·         Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of unintentional injury deaths, followed by poisonings, falls, fires and burns, and drownings.

·         Males and certain minority groups suffer proportionately more unintentional injuries.

·         Prevention and control of unintentional injuries and fatalities can be instituted based on a model in which energy is the causative agent for injuries.

·         There are also four broad strategies that can prevent unintentional injuries:

o   1) Education

o   2) Regulation

o   3) Automatic Protection

o   4) Litigation

Together, these strategies may be used to reduce the numbers and seriousness of unintentional injuries in the community.

·         Intentional injuries are the outcome of self-directed or interpersonal violence.

·         The spectrum of violence includes assaults, rapes, robberies, suicides, homicides, and the maltreatment of children, elders, and intimate partners.

·         Minorities and young adults are at highest risk for injury or death from an intentional violent act.

·         Family violence, including child and elder maltreatment, and intimate partner violence, is a serious and pervasive community health problem.

·         Widely publicized fatal shootings in schools have once again focused national attention on violence in our schools. However, schools remain a relatively safe place for the nation’s youth.

·         Youth violence, including youth gang violence, grew in the 1990s but has since decline, in part because of federal, state, and local initiatives to address this problem.

·         Significant resources are available at the state and federal levels to assist local communities in reducing the number and seriousness of violence-related injuries.