Report Details Nonfatal Traffic-Related Pedestrian Injuries Presenting to the ED

THURSDAY, May 2, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The overall visit proportion for emergency department visits involving pedestrian injury is 45.62 per 100,000 emergency department visits, according to research published in the May 2 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Vaughn Barry, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues examined near real-time emergency department visit data from the CDC National Syndromic Surveillance Program for January 2021 to December 2023 to examine the number of pedestrians suffering nonfatal traffic-related injuries requiring medical treatment.

The researchers identified about 301 million emergency department visits during the study period. Of these, 137,325 involved a pedestrian (overall visit proportion, 45.62 per 100,000 visits). Compared with non-Hispanic White persons, six racial and ethnic minority groups had proportions of visits for pedestrian injury that were 1.53 and 2.47 times as high. The visit proportion was 1.93 and 1.21 times as high for males versus females and in September to November versus June to August, respectively.

"Findings from emergency department data on pedestrian injuries emphasize the need to prioritize prevention efforts for pedestrians," the authors write.

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