Injury Mortality in the United States, 1999–2016

Injury Mortality in the United States, 1999–2016

These figures depict injury mortality in the United States beginning in 1999. Two concepts are included in the circumstances of an injury death: intent of injury and mechanism of injury. Intent of injury describes whether the injury was inflicted purposefully (intentional injury) and, if purposeful, whether the injury was self-inflicted (suicide or self-harm) or inflicted by another person (homicide). Injuries that were not purposefully inflicted are considered unintentional (accidental) injuries. Mechanism of injury describes the source of the energy transfer that resulted in physical or physiological harm to the body. Examples of mechanisms of injury include falls, motor vehicle traffic crashes, burns, poisonings, and drownings (1,2). Each dashboard allows the user to select subcategories of injury deaths based on intent and mechanism of injury. Numbers and rates are provided for the subcategory selected by the user.

The data are presented in six dashboards:

• Injury Deaths by Mechanism: Displays mortality by selected mechanism(s) of injury for all intents combined for selected sex, age group, and race and Hispanic origin.
• Injury Deaths by Intent: Displays mortality by selected intent(s) of injury for all mechanisms combined for selected sex, age group, and race and Hispanic origin.
• Injury Deaths by Sex: Displays mortality by selected sex(es) for selected mechanism of injury, intent of injury, age group, and race and Hispanic origin.
• Injury Deaths by Age Group: Displays mortality by selected age group for selected mechanism of injury, intent of injury, sex, and race and Hispanic origin.
• Injury Deaths by Race and Hispanic Origin: Displays mortality by selected race and Hispanic origin for selected mechanism of injury, intent of injury, sex, and age group.
• Injury Deaths by Mechanism and Intent Interaction: Displays mortality by either mechanism for intent or by intent for mechanism, with filters for year, sex, age group, and race and Hispanic origin.

Select a different dashboard from the drop-down menu, then click on “Update Dashboard.” Deaths can be grouped or separated by mechanism of injury, intent of injury, and selected demographics (sex, age group, race and Hispanic origin). Filters across the top of the dashboard control the display of the entire visualization. The dashboards feature:

• Rates: Line charts displaying trends for injury death rates. Both fixed and dynamic scale line charts are provided. The fixed scale line chart allows the user to see changes in rates relative to a predefined y-axis, while the dynamic scale line chart adjusts to maximize the visualization of the trend for the options selected. A dialog box on the left of the dashboard allows the user to select among several options for the range of y-axis values used in the fixed scale line chart.
• Numbers of deaths: For the first five dashboards, a table shows numbers of injury deaths for selections made at the top of the visualization.

Download the dataset in CSV format by clicking the “CSV Format” link. Additional file formats are available for download for each dataset at Data.CDC.gov.

Notes:

† Data are based on information from all resident death certificates filed in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Age-adjusted death rates (per 100,000 standard population) are based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates after 2011 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for non-census years before 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published.

‡ Causes of death are classified by the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD–10). Categories of injury intent and injury mechanism generally follow the categories in the external-cause-of-injury mortality matrix (1,2,3). Cause-of-death statistics are based on the underlying cause of death (4).

Sources:

CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov).

References:

1. National Center for Health Statistics. ICD–10: External cause of injury mortality matrix.
2. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm.
3. Miniño AM, Anderson RN, Fingerhut LA, Boudreault MA, Warner M. Deaths: Injuries, 2002pdf icon. National vital statistics reports; vol 54 no 10. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2006.
4. Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Curtin SC, and Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2015. National vital statistics reports; vol 66. no. 6. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2017. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_06.pdfpdf icon.

Suggested citation:

Bastian B, Miniño A, Warner M, Hedegaard H. Injury mortality, United States: 1999–2016. National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System. 2018.

Designed by JM Keralis, B Bastian, L Lu, and Y Chong: CDC/National Center for Health Statistics.