Report sheds light on unintentional injury deaths among children

While American children are much less likely to die from an unintentional injury than their counterparts in other areas of the world, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that 44 percent of all deaths between the ages of 1 and 19 in the United States are the result of unintentional injury. (Source: “How Kids Get Hurt: Experts Find Thousands of Childhood Deaths Preventable,” Washington Post, Dec. 23, 2008).

"It is a huge public health concern, and I don't think we pay as much attention to it as we should," said Julie Gilchrist, a physician and epidemiologist at CDC and one of the authors of the report.

The CDC also has  compiled state-specific data, which found that in Ohio there are an average of 440 unintentional injury fatalities a year. The death rate of 13.9 per 100,000 population in Ohio is lower than the national rate of 15 per 100,000.