The top three leading causes of preventable injury-related death – poisoning, falls, and motor vehicle – account for 86% of all preventable deaths. No other preventable cause of death — including suffocation, drowning, fires and burns, and natural or environmental disasters — accounts for more than 5% of the total.
In contrast, nonfatal emergency department visits are dominated by fall-related injuries, accounting for 33% of all preventable nonfatal injuries. Struck by or against is the only other injury event accounting for more than 10% of the total (11%). The next two leading causes of preventable injuries – other specified cause and poisoning – each account for about 9% of injury-related emergency department visits. Motor-vehicle occupant injuries account for 8% of the visits.
Other preventable injury causes accounting for 7% of emergency department visits include cut and pierce and overexertion injuries.
Only three injury causes are in the top 10 for both deaths and nonfatal injuries:
The video content below reflects final 2021 fatality data and will be updated when final 2022 data becomes available.
Source:
Fatality data: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) and WONDER data system.
Nonfatal data: National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) All Injury Program, Office of Statistics and Programming, NCIPC, CDC, WISQARS, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.