Vital Moves Helps Prevention of Falls, Top cause of injury and death for 65+

VIA SBINSIDER SOURCES | November, 4th, 2023

Earlier this week, the Arizona Department of Health Services unveiled its new trauma dashboards that offer a detailed look at how many times people call 911 or end up in the emergency room, along with injuries related to falls and motor vehicles. All of it is broken down by year, race and ethnicity.

Take a look at the data dashboard by clicking here.

Some other key statewide findings include:

Falls were the top cause of injury and death for people over the age of 65, with 23,826 fall injuries and 554 deaths.
For kids and teens, falls were the leading cause of injury, but firearms were the leading cause of death.
In 2022, 26 kids or teens died from firearm-related injuries, representing 1/3 of the total pediatric deaths.
Thirty kids and teens died in motor vehicle crashes and seven died as the result of child abuse.
Substance use or alcohol as a factor in motor vehicle crashes statewide decreased slightly from 2022 to 2021.
But, both are still higher than 2017, when substance use was suspected or confirmed in 17.3% of crashes and alcohol in 13.6%.
Last year, suspected or confirmed substance use was a factor in 21.5% of crashes and alcohol in 16.2%.
Alcohol and illicit substances played a big role in overall traumas across the state, with nearly 24% of all trauma incidents in 2022 involving suspected or confirmed use.

And in what will likely come as no surprise, traffic fatalities are high across the state. But the dashboards offer a deeper look into the circumstances and can show how risk factors and protective measures can increase or reduce the extent of a person’s injury.