Injury Deaths on the US-Mexico Border, 2004

Background: Injury is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Unintentional injury alone cost the nation an estimated $565 billion in 2004, equivalent to $2,000 per capita or about $5,100 per household. When unintentional injuries are combined with homicides and suicides, the total represents the third leading cause of death, exceeded only by heart diseases and malignant neoplasms.

Methods: 2004 mortality data, age-adjusted to the US 2000 standard population, are used for the 44 counties nearest the US-Mexico border. To display rates for areas within the border region, multi-year data are used to reduce variability of rates.

Results: Among border Hispanics unintentional injuries are the third leading cause of death, while for non-Hispanic Whites unintentional injuries are the sixth leading cause. For border residents under age 45, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death. Motor vehicle death rates for border Hispanic men are higher than for their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Homicide rates among border Hispanics were higher than for non-Hispanic Whites, while the opposite was true for suicide. Non-Hispanic White death rates on the border for unintentional poisoning and falls were much higher than for Hispanics. Injury death rates were highest in the Arizona and New Mexico border counties.

Conclusion: An important part of injury prevention involves modifying human behavior. For this reason, prevention activities must be linguistically and culturally appropriate, especially for high-risk populations. Interventions can include traffic law enforcement, supervision of high-risk groups, suicide prevention, poison control centers, and others.