Massachusetts Injury Data - Facts and Highlights
MA Injury Overview
Data Overview |
| NON-FATAL INJURIES** | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Hospital
| Outpatient
| Emergency
| ||
| Total Injury Counts | 2,967 | 60,115 | 7.671 | 707,883 |
| Number of Injuries for every 100,000 Massachusetts residents* | 46 | 932 | 119 | 10,975 |
| Leading Causes of Injury | Poisoning | Fall | Fall | Fall |
Motor Vehicle Traffic | Poisoning | Poisoning | Struck by/or against | |
Injury Facts
- Every day 8 MA residents die as a result of an injury and over 2,100 are discharged from a MA acute care hospital for a nonfatal injury.
- Injuries are the leading cause of death among Massachusetts residents between the ages of 1 to 44 years, surpassing cancer and HIV/AIDS deaths.
- Injuries kill more children and youth (ages 1 – 19 years) than all other causes of death combined.
- In 2007, poisonings, including drug overdoses, were the leading cause of injury death (N=965); 66% of these were associated with opioids which includes heroin, oxycodone, fentanyl, morphine, etc.
- Falls were the second leading cause of injury death in 2007 (N=470), followed by motor vehicle traffic-related injuries (N=411).
- Suicides outnumber homicides in the state by nearly 3 to 1 (504 and 183 respectively, in 2007).
- The leading cause of suicides among Massachusetts residents is hanging/suffocation (38%). This differs from the leading cause nationally which is firearms.
- Falls were the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations (N=27,458), observation stays (N=1,237), and emergency department visits (N=177,115) among Massachusetts residents in FY2007.
- Total hospital and emergency department charges for injury-related cases in FY2007 exceeded $2.6 billion.
Data Sources:
Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, MA Department of Public Health
MA Outpatient Observation Stay Database, MA Division of Health Care Finance and Policy
MA Inpatient Hospital Discharge Database, MA Division of Health Care Finance and Policy
MA Emergency Department Discharge Database, MA Division of Health Care Finance and Policy
*These rates are not age-adjusted and may vary slightly from other Department of Public Health publications. Rates are based on Census Bureau 2007 Population Estimates (N=6,449,755).
**These databases are based on a fiscal year (October 1, 2006 - September 31, 2007).
Prepared by the Injury Surveillance Program, Bureau of Health Information, Statistics, Research, and Evaluation, MDPH.
This information is provided by the Injury Surveillance Program within the Department of Public Health.