By Daniel Stefanski |
A new study from Arizona’s Health Department reveals a troubling rise in a certain classification of injury.
On Monday, the Arizona Department of Health Services published the State Trauma Advisory Board 2023 Report. According to a summary prepared by Rachel Garcia, the Deputy Assistant Director of Preparedness, Chief of Emergency Medical Service and Trauma, and Principal Investigator for the CDC Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Program at the Arizona Department of Health Services, the Trauma Dashboard “shows that there are increases in both the trauma incidents (4%) and trauma-related deaths (3%) reported to the registry in 2022.”
The Department boasted of the debut of two resources in this year’s report – “an online interactive Trauma Dashboard and a Motor Vehicle Traffic-Related Trauma Dashboard.” The purpose of both resources is to “provide valuable insight into the top mechanisms of injury and trauma deaths in Arizona.”
Per the Department’s statistics for 2022, “among children ages 0 to 17, falls were the top mechanism of injury, but firearms were the top cause of death”; while “for adults older than 65 years of age, falls were the top mechanism of both injury and death.” The Department shared that “adults over 65 had the highest trauma rate of any age group.”
In addition to providing these numbers, the Department, through Garcia’s post, gave readers some ways that they could insulate themselves from these kinds of traumatic injuries. The primary focus of protection for motor vehicle passengers or motorcyclists to wear helmets or seatbelts while on the road. Garcia wrote that “motor vehicle passengers who visited a trauma center who were not wearing seatbelts were nearly four times as likely to die in a motor vehicle accident compared to passengers who were wearing seatbelts,” and that “motorcyclists were nearly two times more likely to die if they were not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.”
There were just under 70,000 Trauma incidents (68,245) compiled in the Arizona State Trauma Registry, and 47 Trauma Centers reported data for the Department’s use in the 2023 report. The 2022 Arizona Trauma Snapshot showed that there was an average of 187 trauma incidents reported each day for the year.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
