State-level lifetime medical and work-loss costs of fatal injuries—United States, 2014.

Abstract

Injury-associated deaths have substantial economic consequences in the United States.The total estimated lifetime medical and work-loss costs associated with fatal injuries in 2013 were $214 billion (1).In 2014, unintentional injury, suicide, and homicide (the fourth, tenth, and seventeenth leading causes of death, respectively) accounted for 194,635 deaths in the United States (2).In 2014, a total of 199,756 fatal injuries occurred in the United States, and the associated lifetime medical and work-loss costs were $227 billion (3).This report examines the state-level economic burdens of fatal injuries by extending a previous national-level study (1).Numbers and rates of fatal injuries, lifetime costs, and lifetime costs per capita were calculated for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC) and for four injury intent categories (all intents, unintentional, suicide, and homicide).During 2014, injury mortality rates and economic burdens varied widely among the states and DC.Among fatal injuries of all intents, the mortality rate and lifetime costs per capita ranged from 101.9 per 100,000 and $1,233, respectively (New Mexico) to 40.2 per 100,000 and $491 (New York).States can engage more effectively and efficiently in injury prevention if they are aware of the economic burden of injuries, identify areas for immediate improvement, and devote necessary resources to those areas.The numbers of injury-associated deaths in each of the 50 states and DC in 2014 were obtained from the National Vital Statistics System, and state-level lifetime costs were obtained from the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System database (3).Injury death rates were calculated using the U.S. Census Bureau's bridged race population estimates for 2014.Lifetime costs, which include lifetime medical and work-loss costs, were computed by multiplying the number of injury deaths by average costs of treating injuries and earnings in 2010, adjusted to 2014 prices.Medical costs were derived from various sources that measure the costs of transport, health care in multiple settings, including emergency departments, hospitals, and nursing homes, and examination by a coroner or medical examiner (4).Work-loss costs were developed using earnings data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and life expectancy data from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.Numbers State-Level Lifetime Medical and Work-Loss Costs of Fatal Injuries -United States, 2014