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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Injury Prevention

Goal: Prevent injuries.

A woman and son pause during their bike ride so she can adjust his helmet.

In the United States, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in children, adolescents, and adults younger than 45 years.1 Healthy People 2030 focuses on preventing intentional and unintentional injuries, including injuries that cause death.

Many unintentional injuries are caused by motor vehicle crashes and falls, and many intentional injuries involve gun violence and physical assaults. Interventions to prevent different types of injuries are key to keeping people safe in their homes, workplaces, and communities.

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of injury deaths in the United States, and most overdoses involve opioids.2 Interventions to change health care providers’ prescribing behaviors, distribute naloxone to reverse overdoses, and provide medications for addiction treatment for people with opioid use disorder can help reduce overdose deaths involving opioids.

Objective Status

  • 2 Target met or exceeded
  • 2 Improving
  • 9 Little or no detectable change
  • 11 Getting worse
  • 3 Baseline only
  • 3 Developmental
  • 0 Research

Learn more about objective types

Related Objectives

The following is a sample of objectives related to this topic. Some objectives may include population data.

Injury Prevention — General

Reduce fatal injuries — IVP‑01
Getting worse
Reduce unintentional injury deaths — IVP‑03
Getting worse
Reduce fatal traumatic brain injuries — IVP‑05
Getting worse

Children

Reduce the rate of deaths in children and adolescents aged 1 to 19 years — MICH‑03
Getting worse

Drug and Alcohol Use

Reduce overdose deaths involving heroin — IVP‑23
Target met or exceeded
Reduce overdose deaths involving natural and semisynthetic opioids — IVP‑21
Improving
Reduce overdose deaths involving methadone — IVP‑24
Little or no detectable change
Reduce overdose deaths involving opioids — IVP‑20
Getting worse
Reduce overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone — IVP‑22
Getting worse

Hospital and Emergency Services

Reduce emergency department visits related to nonmedical use of prescription opioids — MPS‑02
Target met or exceeded
Reduce emergency department visits for nonfatal injuries — IVP‑02
Little or no detectable change
Reduce emergency department visits for nonfatal unintentional injuries — IVP‑04
Little or no detectable change
Reduce emergency department visits for medication overdoses in children under 5 years — MPS‑01
Little or no detectable change
Reduce emergency department visits for oral anticoagulant overdoses — MPS‑D01
Developmental
Reduce emergency department visits for insulin overdoses — MPS‑D02
Developmental
Increase the proportion of medical-surgical hospitals that report adverse drug events — MPS‑D04
Developmental

Mental Health and Mental Disorders

Reduce the suicide rate — MHMD‑01
LHI label
Little or no detectable change
Reduce suicide attempts by adolescents — MHMD‑02
Getting worse

Older Adults

Reduce fall-related deaths among older adults — IVP‑08
Getting worse
Reduce the proportion of older adults who use inappropriate medications — OA‑02
Baseline only
Reduce the rate of emergency department visits due to falls among older adults — OA‑03
Baseline only

Sleep

Reduce the rate of motor vehicle crashes due to drowsy driving — SH‑01
Little or no detectable change

Transportation

Reduce the proportion of deaths of car passengers who weren't buckled in — IVP‑07
Little or no detectable change
Reduce deaths from motor vehicle crashes — IVP‑06
Getting worse

Violence Prevention

Reduce nonfatal physical assault injuries — IVP‑10
Little or no detectable change
Reduce emergency department visits for nonfatal intentional self-harm injuries — IVP‑19
Little or no detectable change
Reduce firearm-related deaths — IVP‑13
Getting worse
Reduce nonfatal firearm-related injuries — IVP‑14
Baseline only

Workplace

Reduce work-related injuries resulting in missed work days — OSH‑02
Improving
Reduce deaths from work-related injuries — OSH‑01
Getting worse

Other topics you may be interested in

References

1.

Herron, M. (2019). Deaths: Leading Causes for 2017. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_06-508.pdf [PDF - 2.4 MB]

2.

Scholl, L., Seth, P., Kariisa, M., Wilson, N., & Baldwin, G. Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2013–2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(5152), 1419-1427. http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm675152e1