Highlights of a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

Injury-Related Visits to Hospital Emergency Departments: United States, 1992

Advance Data No. 261

For Release February 1, 1995

The National Center for Health Statistics released a new report containing the first-ever data on non-fatal, injury-related visits to hospital emergency departments. The report includes the following findings:

Data highlights

• In 1992, 34 million emergency room visits, or nearly 40 percent, were injury-related.
• The top five reasons people go to the emergency room for injury-related reasons are: accidental falls, motor vehicle accidents, accidentally being struck (either by other people, objects, or falling objects), cuts or punctures by sharp objects, and violence.
• Males have a significantly higher rate of injury-related visits than females.
• Persons under age 15 and those aged 65 years and over had higher rates of visits for accidental falls compared with those 15-24 years, 25-44 years, and 45-64 years of age.
• Over 9.2 billion dollars were spent on injury-related emergency department visits in 1992.

For more information, please contact NCHS, Office of Public Affairs (301) 458-4800, or via e-mail at paoquery@cdc.gov.

No. 261. Injury-Related Visits to Hospital Emergency Departments: United States, 1992. 20 pp. (PHS) 95-1250 [PDF - 228 KB]