Injury - Unintentional Injury Deaths

Why Is This Important?

Unintentional injury is the third leading cause of death in New Mexico, as it is in the U.S. Roughly 2,000 New Mexicans die from unintentional injuries each year. The leading mechanisms of unintentional injury death are poisonings (including drug overdose), motor vehicle traffic crashes, and falls.

Definition

Deaths due to all causes of unintentional injury

Data Sources

• New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
  (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Online Database
  (http://wonder.cdc.gov)
• New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
  (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

How Are We Doing?

From 1999 through 2023, unintentional injury was consistently the leading cause of death among people 1 to 44 years of age in New Mexico and the 3rd leading cause of death for all ages (with the exception of 2020 and 2021, when COVID-19 deaths overtook unintentional injury deaths). Poisoning (specifically, drug overdose) was the leading cause of unintentional injury death from 2007 through 2017, followed by motor vehicle traffic-related injury, fall-related injury, and suffocation. Poisoning deaths have been on the decline since 2014, after rising steadily over previous two decades. During the time period, unintentional injury death rate for the youngest (age 0-14) age group have been quite steady at about 120 per 100,000 children. The most common mechanisms of injury death among children in 2023 were suffocation and motor vehicle traffic crashes, accounting for a little over half of all deaths among that age group. The unintentional injury death rate for the oldest (age 65+) age group has dropped-off from its peak (168.1 per 100,000 seniors) in 2008, but is still higher than it was at the beginning of the period. Half of all unintentional injury deaths among seniors in 2023 were due to falls. Unintentional injury death rates for the two middle age groups (ages 15-44 and 45-64) follow an almost identical pattern, showing a gradual increase from 1999 through about 2017 followed by a sharp increase through 2021 and a levelling off or decrease in 2022 and 2023. The most common mechanism of unintentional injury deaths among those age groups was poisoning, consisting primarily of drug overdose deaths.

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

In 2023, the age-adjusted unintentional injury death rate in NM (85.6/100,000 population) was 1.4 times that of the rate in the U.S. (62.3/100,000 population). The four leading causes of unintentional injury deaths in the U.S. rank the same as in New Mexico; poisoning, motor vehicle traffic crashes, falls and suffocation.

What Is Being Done?

Home safety inspections and modifications: NMDOH is encouraging public safety services to participate in improving home safety. Effective activities for fire departments and emergency medical services include conducting home visits to community members at risk for falls and to provide education about how to make homes safer to prevent falls and other injuries including promoting safe infant sleep practices. Effective activities for police agencies include conducting similar activities when they are called to homes. The Adult Falls prevention partners are promoting exercise and balance falls prevention programs -- Otago, A Matter of Balance (MOB), Tai Ji Quan: Moving for Better Balance, and Tai Chi for Arthritis. The objectives of these programs are to improve strength, balance, mobility, and daily functioning to reduce one's risk of fall and related injuries. The Opioid Overdose Prevention Program is working to enhance the effectiveness of the Prescription Monitoring Program. The Opioid Overdose Prevention Program is contracting with multi-disciplinary work groups in high-burden communities to develop local responses to the opioid epidemic. The Opioid Overdose Prevention Program is conducting rigorous evaluations of New Mexico laws, policies, and regulations to compare them with evidence of governmental and non-governmental public health programs and research. The Opioid Overdose Prevention Program is sharing public health and public safety information with the goal of blocking access to diverted opioids and illicit drugs. The Office of Injury Prevention is supporting hospital-based safe sleep training for parents of newborns before hospital discharge.

Other Objectives

New Mexico Community Health Status Indicator (CHSI)