Impact of trauma on society

Abstract

Trauma is the leading cause of death in the working population. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports 4.4 million deaths annually due to unintentional or violence-related injuries; one in three of these deaths results from road traffic injuries (RTIs). For individuals aged 5-29 years, three of the top five causes of death are injury-related. Major trauma is the eighth leading cause of death across all age groups and the leading cause of death among children and young adults. The highest rates of trauma-related deaths are observed in low-income countries. Globally, men face twice the risk of dying from injuries as women, with approximately 75% of injury-related deaths resulting from trauma and RTIs.

Keywords: ESTES; Polytrauma; Whitebook.

Fig. 1

Accidents as a cause of death among European residents in 2020. (Publicly available data from Eurostat)

Fig. 2

Trauma-related share of all deaths in the European population stratified by age, adopted from publicly available data from Eurostat

Fig. 3

Male and Female Europeans aged 15 years and older reporting injuries within one year (publicly available data from Eurostat)

Fig. 4

The rate of hospital discharges for inpatients with injuries in European countries in 2021 (publicly available data from Eurostat)

Fig. 5

Death rate by cause of injury stratified by European sub-region in 2019

Fig. 6

Road traffic Injuries in the EU

Fig. 7

The global course of mean mortality rates following severe injuries over the past 5 decades

Fig. 8

Age-standardised DALY rate of injury per 100,000 people per country, 2019. *Countries in grey indicate that they are not part of the GBD European sub-regions