The High Cost of Preventable Injuries

• 50,000,000 injuries requiring medical treatment occur in a single year in the U.S. Many of them are preventable.

• $406,000,000,000 is the estimated lifetime cost of injuries occurring in a single year in the U.S.
• $  80,000,000,000 of this is medical expenses
• $326,000,000,000 is estimated lifetime productivity losses

• Males account for 70 percent ($283,000,000,000) of the total costs of injuries, largely due to higher rates of fatal injury and the magnitude of their lost wages.

• People ages 25 to 44 represent 30 percent of the U.S. population, but 40 percent ($164,000,000,000) of the total costs of injuries.

• Motor vehicle injuries account for 22 percent ($89,000,000,000) and fall injuries for 20 percent ($81,000,000,000 ) of the total costs of injuries.

• $387,000,000,000 is the estimated annual cost in medical costs of unintentional injuries occurring at home This exceeds the medical costs for injuries from motor vehicle crashes, acts of suicide, or violence.

• $38,000,000,000 a year is the cost of these unintentional home injuries to U.S. employers in employer health care medical spending, sick leave and disability insurance, disruption caused by the injuries and efforts for retraining, and life insurance payments.

• $3,300,000 is the average economic cost of fatal and nonfatal home injuries in one year.

Note: The first five bullet points above are from Incidence and Economic Burden of Injuries in the United States, an analysis of injury data from 2000 conducted for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention