JUNE 2003 - Alberta Centre for Injury Control & Research

AN OVERVIEW OF ALBERTA’S INJURY
CHALLENGES
INJURIES—A MAJOR CHALLENGE
Injuries rank among the most serious health challenges that Alberta faces.
The injury problem is not unique to Alberta. Data from other provinces and
countries indicate that the injury problem is widespread. Injuries are
considered a major public health epidemic nationally and internationally. In
reviewing information from other countries, several observations were
apparent:
• Falls, motor vehicle collisions, fire, suffocation, suicide and self-inflicted
injury are major causes of injury death.
• Injuries are the leading cause of premature death and account for the
majority of deaths of those aged 44 and under.
• Burden of injury is highest in the disadvantaged population.
• Indigenous people and people who live in rural and remote areas are at
high risk of injury.
• Injury deaths and morbidity cost the health system, the economy and
society billions of dollars annually.
• Most nations have identified injury priorities and strategies for national
action.
The second Innocenti Report Card 7 focused on child deaths by injury in the
member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD). It ranked the world’s richest nations according to
their injury death rates for children aged 1 to 14. In every single
industrialized country, injury was the leading killer of children. Taken
together, traffic crashes, intentional injuries, drownings, falls, fires,
poisonings and other incidents kill more than 20,000 1 to 14 year-olds every
year in the OECD.
Table 3 shows the number of child injury deaths for the years 1991-95. The
figure also shows the lives that could be saved if countries had Sweden’s
child injury death rate, the lowest among the OECD countries. At least
12,000 child deaths a year could be prevented if all OECD countries had the
same child injury death rate as Sweden; over 240 child deaths could be
prevented per year in Canada.
Injuries are major
challenges in
Alberta, Canada
and abroad.
Injuries are a
leading cause of
death, are highest
in the
disadvantaged
population and
cost the health
system, the
economy and
society billions of
dollars annually.
Traffic crashes,
intentional
injuries,
drownings, falls,
fires, poisonings
and other
incidents kill more
than 20,000 one
to 14 year-olds
every year in
OECD countries.
Making Alberta the Safest Place to Live
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