Unintentional Struck by / Struck Against Injury Mortality in the United States, 1999–2006

BACKGROUND: A tenth of all fatal work injuries were due to objects striking workers in the United States. Our study described demographics and trend analysis in unintentional struck by / struck against fatalities in the United States from 1999–2006, and identifies the changes in deaths for specific population subgroups. METHODS: Mortality data came from the CDC's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System. Trends during 1999–2006 were analyzed by gender, age group and race. Annual percentage change in deaths / rates and simple linear regression were used for time-trend analysis from1999-2006, and examine its significance. We compared proportions between groups using Chi-square tests. RESULTS: During 1999-2006, there were 7049 deaths; 6236 (88.5%) males, 6180 (87.7%) whites, and 731 (10.3%) aged 45-49 years. The injury mortality varied from a high of 938 in 2000 to a low of 846 in 2004. Overall deaths declined by 4.4% during 1999 to 2006 (p=0.047 for time-related trend). The proportion of deaths was significantly greater among males than females (7.9% vs. 1.9%;p<0.01) and whites than among all other races combined (6.0% vs. 4.9%;p<0.01). Almost 21% of all deaths occur in only three states of US i.e. Texas (n=592;8.4%), California (n=513;7.3%) and Florida (n=375;5.3%). Sub-group analysis showed, injury mortality decreased 5% in males (p=0.1 time-related trend) and 1% in females (p=0.4 time-related trend). CONCLUSION: Overall injury mortality decreased from 1999–2006, however trends varied among genders, age and racial groups. Preventive measures and continuous surveillance is warranted to further decrease these injuries.