Vital Signs: Health Burden and Medical Costs of Nonfatal Injuries to Motor Vehicle Occupants — United States, 2012

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Health Burden and Medical Costs of Nonfatal Injuries to Motor Vehicle Occupants — United States, 2012
• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Personal Author:
  Bergen, Gwen ; Peterson, Cora ; Ederer, David ; Florence, Curtis ; Haileyesus, Tadesse ; Kresnow, Marcie-jo ; Xu, Likang
• Description:
  Background
  
  Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The purpose of this study was to describe the current health burden and medical and work loss costs of nonfatal crash injuries among vehicle occupants in the United States.
  
  Methods
  
  CDC analyzed data on emergency department (ED) visits resulting from nonfatal crash injuries among vehicle occupants in 2012 using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System – All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS). The number and rate of all ED visits for the treatment of crash injuries that resulted in the patient being released and the number and rate of hospitalizations for the treatment of crash injuries were estimated, as were the associated number of hospital days and lifetime medical and work loss costs.
  
  Results
  
  In 2012, an estimated 2,519,471 ED visits resulted from nonfatal crash injuries, with an estimated lifetime medical cost of $18.4 billion (2012 U.S. dollars). Approximately 7.5% of these visits resulted in hospitalizations that required an estimated 1,057,465 hospital days in 2012.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Nonfatal crash injuries occur frequently and result in substantial costs to individuals, employers, and society. For each motor vehicle crash death in 2012, eight persons were hospitalized, and 100 were treated and released from the ED.
  
  Implications for Public Health
  
  Public health practices and laws, such as primary seat belt laws, child passenger restraint laws, ignition interlocks to prevent alcohol impaired driving, sobriety checkpoints, and graduated driver licensing systems have demonstrated effectiveness for reducing motor vehicle crashes and injuries. They might also substantially reduce associated ED visits, hospitalizations, and medical costs.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Absenteeism Accidents, Traffic Adolescent Adult Aged Aged, 80 And Over Child Child, Preschool Cost Of Illness Emergency Service, Hospital Female Hospitalization Humans Infant Infant, Newborn Male Middle Aged Population Surveillance Wounds And Injuries Young Adult

  More +
• Source:
  MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2014; 63(40):894-900.
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Pubmed ID:
  25299606
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4584612
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Name as Subject:
  Vital Signs
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• Volume:
  63
• Issue:
  40
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:23c6edbbded507ad5e87a3c03f8486173e581aacd8677f700df6bff8a660a6d05b7f5b685494d279e482aeada4fc5796774e886200f2233e53c27fbbbb7ade9b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/54955/cdc_54955_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 439.58 KB ]