TUESDAY, July 16, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- From 1999 to 2017, there was an increase in unintentional injury death rates, with variation in trends by leading causes of unintentional injury death, according to a July data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics.
R. Henry Olaisen, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues describe trends in the death rates for unintentional injuries and three leading causes of unintentional injury-related death (motor vehicle traffic, drug overdose, and falls) from 1999 through 2017.
The researchers observed a 40 percent increase in the age-adjusted unintentional injury death rate from 1999 through 2017, from 35.3 to 49.4 deaths per 100,000 standard population. Between 2014 and 2017, an increase in motor vehicle traffic death rates was seen across all levels of urbanization, with the largest increase in small metropolitan (metro) counties. Unintentional drug overdose death rates also increased across all levels of urbanization, with the greatest increase seen in large fringe metro counties. Increases were noted in unintentional fall death rates across urbanization levels except for large central metro counties, with the largest increase seen in rural counties.
"Overall, age-adjusted unintentional injury death rates have risen 40 percent from 1999 through 2017, although the trends varied by leading causes of unintentional injury death (motor vehicle traffic, drug overdose, and falls)," the authors write.
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