2002 Chief Medical Officer of Health report: Injury- Predictable and preventable

This is a report on injuries and their impact on the people of Ontario. More than 2,000 residents of Ontario are injured daily. This translates into more than one person being injured every minute of every day. The vast majority of injuries are both predictable and preventable and are not just “accidents”. In the field of injury prevention, injuries are categorized as being unintentional or intentional. Unintentional injuries include injuries sustained from motor vehicle collisions, falls, scalds, burns, drownings, poisoning or suffocation. Intentional injuries include injuries sustained from suicide and violence. This report focuses on unintentional injury. Regardless of age, unintentional injury ranks fourth among the leading causes of death, after cancer, circulatory system and respiratory diseases. Additionally, unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for people aged 1 to 34. Injuries incur significant direct and indirect costs to the residents of Ontario and our provincial health care resources. Direct costs of unintentional injuries are attributed to such things as medical care, hospitalization, rehabilitation and non-institutional care. Indirect costs of unintentional injuries are attributed to both the social and economic productivity losses. In 1996, the combined direct and indirect costs of unintentional injuries were almost $3 billion dollars. These costs are alarmingly high and highlight the need for a cross-jurisdictional multidisciplinary approach to this significant public health issue. In this report, the burden of injury in Ontario, multiple risk factors, challenges in prevention, strategies for prevention, and future recommendations will be discussed.