Important Facts for Unintentional Injury Emergency Department Visits

Definition

The number of emergency department visits among Utah residents for unintentional injuries per 10,000 persons.

Numerator

Number of emergency department visits for unintentional injuries among Utah residents.

Denominator

Total population of Utah.

Data Interpretation Issues

The hospital and emergency department data were created for use in billing and remittance of payment, not for public health surveillance. Therefore, the data are weak in some areas, such as external cause of injury and race or ethnicity.

Why Is This Important?

In Utah, there are approximately 181,000 emergency department visits a year due to unintentional injuries. In 2005, the top 5 leading causes of unintentional injury emergency department visits in the US are falls, struck by or against, overexertion, motor vehicle crashes, and cut/pierce. Injuries do not happen by chance and the events leading up to injuries are not random. Choosing safe behaviors, using safety equipment, and obeying safety laws can prevent most unintentional injuries.

Other Objectives

Violence and Injury Prevention Program, Utah Department of Health: By 2010, reduce deaths caused by unintentional injuries to no more than 27.9 per 100,000 Utah residents. By 2010, increase bicycle helmet use among elementary school-age children in Utah to 25.0 percent. By 2010, increase the use of vehicle safety restraints among child occupants 8 and under in Utah to at least 75.0 percent.

How Are We Doing?

Utah has seen a decline in unintentional injury emergency department visits from 2001 (190,811) to 2005 (174,575). Utah's rate of unintentional injury emergency department visits declined from 827.6 per 10,000 persons in 2001 to 690.3 in 2004. Southeastern Local Health District had the highest rate of unintentional emergency department visits from 2001-2005 at 970.3 per 10,000 persons and Summit County Local Health District has the lowest at 328.7.

What Is Being Done?

The Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP) provides funding, training, and technical assistance to local health departments to conduct education and awareness programs surrounding the following topics: child safety seats, seat belt use, pedestrian safety, bicycle safety, DUI prevention, ATV and off-road safety, fire prevention, safe firearm storage, and drowning prevention. In addition, VIPP promotes bicycle and pedestrian safety by distributing bike helmets, providing helmets at low costs, and providing bike and pedestrian safety information. VIPP is the lead organization for Safe Kids Utah that works on preventing unintentional injuries to children. To help reduce fall-related hospitalizations and deaths, VIPP is has worked with local health departments, the Asthma program, and the Arthritis program to promote home safety and fall prevention programs for older adults.

Health Program Information

The mission of the Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP) is to promote the health of Utah citizens by working to reduce the incidence and severity of injuries and resultant deaths. Its goals are to a) focus prevention efforts on reducing intentional and unintentional injury, b) conduct education aimed at increasing awareness and changing behaviors that contribute to the occurrence of injury, c) strengthen local health department capacity to conduct local injury prevention programs, d) promote legislation, policy changes, and enforcement that will reduce injury hazards and increase safe behaviors, e) collaborate with private and public partners, and f) improve the Utah Department of Health capacity to collect mortality and morbidity data from multiple sources and conduct injury epidemiology for use in prevention planning, implementation, and evaluation.