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Accidents and unintentional injuries

from Medical topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Robert G. Frank  and
Andrea M. Lee
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Robert G. Frank
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Andrea M. Lee
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

Injury is a leading cause of death and disability for America's young adults and children. It is the leading cause of death for those from ages 1 to 44 (Mokdad et al., 2004) and is the fifth leading cause of death for all Americans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001). Injuries are associated with higher treatment costs than the other three leading causes of death. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of severe brain injury, as well as most paraplegic and quadraplegic cases (Spielberger & Frank, 1992).

For many years, injuries were viewed as ‘accidents’ that were inevitable and not responsive to prevention efforts. Injury events tended to be attributed to human error or misaction; individuals died or were injured due to driving while intoxicated or a leg was broken when someone failed to watch their step. This psychological model of injury was related to the emergence of the concept of ‘accident-proneness’ during the 1930s and 1940s. In this approach, accidents occurred to individuals as a function of unconscious wishes or desires (Waller, 1994).

Injury events were also attributed to human error or misaction because they often involved relatively rare events that were perceived as unpredictable. Many data systems tended to record only ‘single’ causes of injury, negating the idea that a crash may occur both because the driver is impaired by alcohol and because the roadway geometry at the crash location is inadequate (Waller, 1994).

Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 527 - 530
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

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