Intentional and Unintentional Injuries

Intentional and Unintentional Injuries

Race/ Ethnicity

• Overall, African Americans were victimized by intimate partners a significantly higher rates than persons of any other race between 1993 and 1998. Black females experienced intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females, and about 22 times the rate of women of other races. Black males experienced intimate partner violence at a rate about 62% higher than that of white males and about 2.5 times the rate of men of other races.
• African-American women experience significantly more domestic violence than White women in the age group of 20-24. Generally, Black women experience similar levels of intimate partner victimization in all other age categories as compared to White women, but experience slightly more domestic violence. (Estimates are provided from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which defines an intimate partner as a current or former spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend. Violent acts include murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault.)

Group 1

Male/Female

Risks Factors

Relationships

Individual

• Nearly 3 in 10 women (29%) and 1 in 10 men (10%) in the US have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by a partner and report a related impact on their functioning.
• Nearly, 15% of women (14.8%) and 4% of men have been injured as a result of IPV that included rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
• 1 in 4 women (24.3%) and 1 in 7 men (13.8%) aged 18 and older in the United States have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime

• Marital conflict-fights, tension, and other struggles
• Marital instability-divorces or separations
• Dominance and control of the relationship by one partner over the other
• Economic stress
• Unhealthy family relationships and interactions

• Low self-esteem
• Low income
• Low academic achievement
• Young age
• Aggressive or delinquent behavior as a youth
• Heavy alcohol and drug use
• Depression
• Antisocial personality traits
• Borderline personality traits
• Prior history of being physically abusive
• Having few friends and being isolated from other people
• Unemployment
• Emotional dependence and insecurity
• Belief in strict gender roles
• Perpetrating psychological aggression
• Being a victim of physical or psychological abuse
• History of experiencing poor parenting as a child
• History of experiencing physical discipline as a child

Intimate Partner/

Domestic Violence

Community

• Poverty and associated factors (e.g., overcrowding)
• Low social capital-lack of institutions, relationships, and norms that shape a community's social interactions
• Weak community sanctions against IPV (e.g., unwillingness of neighbors to intervene in situations where they witness violence)

Intimate Partner Violence: Describes physical, sexual, or psychological harm by current or former partner or spouse

Age Differences

Females ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 generally experienced the highest rates of intimate partner violence.

Prevention

• Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious problem that has lasting and harmful effects on individuals, families, and communities. The goal for IPV prevention is to stop it from happening in the first place. However, the solutions are just as complex as the problem.
• Prevention efforts should ultimately reduce the occurrence of IPV by promoting healthy, respectful, nonviolent relationships. Healthy relationships can be promoted by addressing change at all levels of the social ecology that influence IPV: individual, relationship, community, and society. Additionally, effective prevention efforts will reduce known risk factors for IPV and promote healthy relationships.

Risks

Common substances that can cause poisoning (especially in children) include the following:

• Automobile fluids (e.g., gasoline, antifreeze, windshield fluid)
• Cosmetics and other personal care products
• Household cleaning products (e.g., drain cleaners, dishwasher detergent)
• Over-the-counter or prescription medications (e.g., analgesics such as acetaminophen, cough and cold medicines, vitamins)
• Foreign objects (e.g., toys, batteries)
• Paints and paint thinners
• Pesticides (e.g., insecticides, weed killers, rodenticides)
• Plants
• Art supplies and office supplies
• Alcohol
• Food products
• Herbal medicines

Prevention

• “National Poison Prevention Week” occurs each year during the third week of March. It is a great time for communities to raise awareness about unintentional poisonings and to share prevention tips.
• Child Resistant Packaging
• Household Safety
• Proper Use

D.C. Facts

• 54% of poison exposures involved medications; other exposures were to household or automotive products, plants, mushrooms, pesticides, animal bites and stings.
• 75% of poison exposures involved people who swallowed a drug or poison. People were also poisoned by inhalation and through exposures to the skin or eyes.

Poisonings

Intentional Injuries

Age Differences

• Poisoning occurs when any substance interferes with normal body functions after it is swallowed, inhaled, injected, or absorbed.
• A poison is any substance, including medications, that is harmful to your body if too much is eaten, inhaled, injected, or absorbed through the skin.
• An unintentional poisoning occurs when a person taking or giving too much of a substance did not mean to cause harm.

• The majority of non-fatal poisonings occur in children younger than six years old.
• Poisonings are one of the leading causes of death among adults.

Age Differences

Children ages 1 to 4 have the highest drowning rates. In 2009, among children 1 to 4 years old who died from an unintentional injury, more than 30% died from drowning.Among children ages 1 to 4, most drownings occur in home swimming pools. Drowning is responsible for more deaths among children 1-4 than any other cause except congenital anomalies (birth defects). Among those 1-14, fatal drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death behind motor vehicle crashes.

Intentional injuries are injuries resulting from purposeful harmful actions upon oneself or others.

Risks

Female/ Male

Males: Nearly 80% of people who die from drowning are male

• Lack of Swimming Ability
• Lack of Barriers
• Lack of Close Supervision
• Location
• Failure to Wear Life Jackets
• Alcohol Use
• Seizure Disorders

Drownings

Drown: to die under water or other liquid of suffocation.

Unintentional Injuries

Facts

Prevention

Race/ Ethnicity

• From 2005-2009, there were an average of 3,533 fatal unintentional drownings (non-boating related) annually in the United States — about ten deaths per day. An additional 347 people died each year from drowning in boating-related incidents.
• More than 50% of drowning victims treated in emergency departments (EDs) require hospitalization or transfer for further care (compared with a hospitalization rate of about 6% for all unintentional injuries).1,2 These nonfatal drowning injuries can cause severe brain damage that may result in long-term disabilities such as memory problems, learning disabilities, and permanent loss of basic functioning (e.g., permanent vegetative state).

Between 2005 and 2009, the fatal unintentional drowning rate for African Americans was significantly higher than that of whites across all ages.2 The disparity is widest among children 5-14 years old. The fatal drowning rate of African American children ages 5 to 14 is almost three times that of white children in the same age range.2 The disparity is most pronounced in swimming pools; African American children 5-19 drown in swimming pools at rates 5.5 times higher than those of whites. This disparity is greatest among those 11-12 years where African Americans drown in swimming pools at rates 10 times those of whites.

Factors such as access to swimming pools, the desire or lack of desire to learn how to swim, and choosing water-related recreational activities may contribute to the racial differences in drowning rates. Available rates are based on population, not on participation. If rates could be determined by actual participation in water-related activities, the disparity in minorities’ drowning rates compared to whites would be much greater.

• Swimming skills help.
• Seconds count—learn CPR.
• Life jackets can reduce risk.
• Buddy System

Examples of

Intentional Injuries

• Between 2005 and 2009, the fatal unintentional drowning rate for African Americans was significantly higher than that of whites across all ages. The disparity is widest among children 5-14 years old. The fatal drowning rate of African American children ages 5 to 14 is almost three times that of white children in the same age range. The disparity is most pronounced in swimming pools; African American children 5-19 drown in swimming pools at rates 5.5 times higher than those of whites. This disparity is greatest among those 11-12 years where African Americans drown in swimming pools at rates 10 times those of whites.
• Factors such as access to swimming pools, the desire or lack of desire to learn how to swim, and choosing water-related recreational activities may contribute to the racial differences in drowning rates.

Risks

Unintentional Injuries are harmful acts that occurred without any intention of causing damage to oneself or others.

• Driving without a license
• Driving while distracted
• Texting and driving
• Driving under the influence
• Blasting loud music
• Falling asleep behind the wheel

Prevention

• Effective clinical care for mental, physical and substance use disorders
• Easy access to a variety of clinical interventions
• Restricted access to highly lethal means of suicide
• Strong connections to family and community support
• Support through ongoing medical and mental health care relationships
• Skills in problem solving, conflict resolution and handling problems in a non-violent way
• Cultural and religious beliefs that discourage suicide and support self-preservation

• Child maltreatment
• Community violence: includes neighborhood violence
• Homicide
• Intimate partner violence (IPV): includes domestic violence
• School violence
• Sexual violence
• Suicide
• Youth violence

Female/ Male

According to the CDC, males make up a larger number of alcohol related motor vehicle collisions; whereas in general the genders appear to be relatively equal

Female/ Male

Prevention

• Males take their own lives at nearly four times the rate of females and represent 77.9% of all suicides.
• Females are more likely than males to have suicidal thoughts.
• Suicide is the seventh leading cause of death for males and the fourteenth leading cause for females.
• Firearms are the most commonly used method of suicide among males (56.9%).

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Suicide

Examples of Unintentional Injury

• Seatbelt and helmet laws : saved 255,000 lives between 1975 and 2008
• Car seat laws:
• Rear facing - birth to 2 yrs.
• Forward facing - 2 to 5 yrs.
• Booster - 5 til seat belt fits properly (@57in. tall min.)
• Parent and Teen driving agreement
• Not drinking and driving - Minimum age drinking requirements
• Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) programs
• Distracted driving
• Federal laws enacted to ban texting while driving for gov. officials, commercial drivers, laymen, and teens

the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally

Motor vehicle accidents or collisions occur when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, road debris, or other object; often resulting in injury, death, and/or property damage.

Facts

• Suicide suffocation and unspecified homicide are the two leading external causes of intentional deaths.
• Account for 30% of all injury related deaths
• Both homicide and suicide firearm injuries are the leading causes of intentional injury ages 15-65 +
• Other injuries include: homicide suffocation, homicide (cuts/pierces), other homicide specified (classified) and suicide poisoning.

Race/ Ethnicity

• Car accidents
• Drug overdose
• Falls
• Fires
• Suffocation
• Drowning
• Burns

• Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death among American Indians/Alaska Natives across all ages.
• Among American Indians/Alaska Natives aged 10 to 34 years, suicide is the second leading cause of death.
• The suicide rate among American Indian/Alaska Native adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 34 (19.5 per 100,000) is 1.5 times higher than the national average for that age group (12.9 per 100,000).

Facts

Risks

• Alcohol related motor vehicle accidents account for “one death every 51 minutes” with an annual cost of “more than $59 billion”
• Everyday in US, “more than 9 people are killed and more than 1,153 people are injured in crashes” with a distracted driver

Study Questions

Race/ Ethnicity

• Previous suicide attempt(s)
• History of depression or other mental illness
• Alcohol or drug abuse
• Family history of suicide or violence
• Physical illness

Age Differences

According to reports from 1994 - 2006, motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death amongst Native Americans, followed by Hispanics and then Asian/Pacific Islanders

• In 2013, Motor Vehicle collisions ranked as the number one cause of death in persons age 5 - 24 in the United States
• It ranked number two among persons ages 1 - 4 and 25 - 65
• Leading cause of death in people age 30 and younger
• Ages 16 to 19 are nearly three times more likely than drivers aged 20 and older to get in motor vehicle accident

Risks

Intentional Injury

1. define intentional injury ?

2. list and define 3 forms of international injury, and give 1 prevention method for each

Unintentional Injury

1. About what percent of deaths from injuries are represented by unintentional injuries ?

2. list 3 examples of unintentional injuries and give 2 risk factors for each.

Relationship

Individual

• family environment with conflict and violence
• childhood history of abuse
• hypermasculinity
• etc.

Race/ Ethnicity

• alcohol use
• drug use
• delinquency
• general aggressiveness
• early sexual initiation
• coercive sexual fantasies
• etc.

Societal

• Among adult women surveyed, 26.9% of American Indian/Alaska Natives, 22% of non-Hispanic Blacks, 18.8% of non-Hispanic Whites, 14.6% of Hispanics, and 35.5% of other women of varying races experienced an attempted or completed rape at some time in their lives.

Community

• Norms that support sexual violence
• male superiority
• weak laws and policies relating to sexual violence
• high levels of crime
• etc.

Sexual Violence

• poverty
• lack of employment
• lack of police and judicial support
• general tolerance of sexual violence in community
• etc.

Sexual violence (SV) is a significant problem in the United States. SV refers to sexual activity where consent is not obtained or not given freely. Anyone can experience SV, but most victims are female. The person responsible for the violence is typically male and usually someone known to the victim. The person can be, but is not limited to, a friend, coworker, neighbor, or family member.

Prevention

Male/ Female

• Strategies that try to equip the victim with knowledge, awareness, or self-defense skills are referred to as "risk reduction techniques."
• Strategies focused on the perpetrator attempt to change risk and protective factors for sexual violence to reduce the likelihood that an individual will engage in sexually violent behavior.
• The goal of bystander prevention strategies is to change social norms supporting sexual violence and empower men and women to intervene with peers to prevent an assault from occurring.

• Nearly 1 in 5 (18.3%) women & 1 in 71 men (1.4%) reported experiencing rape at some time in their lives.
• Among female rape victims, perpetrators were reported to be intimate partners (51.1%), family members (12.5%), acquaintances (40.8%), and strangers (13.8%).
• In a study of undergraduate women, 19% experienced attempted or complete sexual assault since entering college.
• 4.8% of men reported they were made to penetrate someone else at some time in their lives.

Sexual Assault vs. Rape

Sexual assault refers to any unwanted sexual contact, including fondling and molestation.

Rape is defined as unwanted penetration, whether that is oral, anal, or vaginal.

Age Differences

• In a nationally representative survey of adults:
• 37.4% of female rape victims were first raped between the ages of 18-24.
• 12.3% female rape victims and 27.8% of male rape victims were first raped when they were 10 years or younger.
• 29.9% of female rape victims were first raped between the ages of 11-17.