Chapter 2 - How the World Views Trauma and Trauma Care

Summary

Trauma remains the leading cause of death worldwide in the first four decades of life. Estimates for 2014 suggest that there were around 14,000–16,000 trauma-related deaths per day, with road traffic collisions being the most common cause. The burden is especially high in low- and middle-income countries, where over 90% of injury-related deaths occur. However, this figure hides a much wider and deeper burden of trauma on communities. For every person who dies, many more are left with physical and mental sequelae of trauma. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) take this into account by combining the number of life years lost from a premature death with the number of years lived with disabilities due to non-fatal injuries, with one DALY being one lost year of healthy living. Such data for 1998 indicated that 16% of the world’s burden of disease was attributable to trauma, and predictions for 2020 suggested that this figure would rise. In 1999 it was acknowledged that around 60 million DALYs were lost due to trauma in India and China combined.