Injury Prevention Could Save Maryland At Least $700
Million a Year
By Kenna Lowe
School of Public Health
In 2003, the total estimated cost of injuries in
Maryland due to lost productivity and premature mortality
was $1.9 billion. More than $700 million could be saved if
Maryland's injury death rates decreased to those of
Massachusetts, resulting in 23,700 fewer years of
potentially productive life lost, according to researchers
from the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Steps such as enforcing speed limits through
electronic monitoring and implementing tougher gun design,
purchase and usage laws could decrease injuries in
Maryland. The study is published in the summer issue of
Maryland Medicine.
In order to measure the cost of injuries, the
researchers calculated the number of potential years of
lost work productivity due to both nonfatal and fatal
injury and illness, including heart diseases, malignant
growths and respiratory diseases. They also compared
mortality data from Maryland with that of Massachusetts,
which, although the states are demographically and
socioeconomically similar, has much lower injury mortality
rates.
The Johns Hopkins researchers found that in Maryland
in 2003 almost half the total productive years of life lost
to various diseases resulted from fatal and nonfatal
injuries, mainly firearm and motor vehicle injuries. In
2003, the total estimated cost of treatment for injury
victims in Maryland, over and above productivity losses,
was $3 billion.
"In Maryland, both fatal and nonfatal injuries
presented the highest costs for society, compared to other
major diseases, like cancer and heart diseases. Therefore,
it is essential to make injury control a priority and
allocate funding for more research and programs," said
Cynthia Gazal-Carvalho, corresponding author of the study
and a postdoctoral fellow in the
Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Bloomberg
School.
The study's co-authors, in addition to Gazal-Carvalho,
were N. Borse, A. Murthy, J. Onishi, V. Pham, M. Wen and T.
Baker.
GO TO SEPTEMBER 26,
2005
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE
FRONT PAGE.
|
