Injury prevention could save Maryland at least $700 million per year

In 2003, the total estimated cost of injuries in Maryland due to lost productivity and premature mortality was $1.9 billion dollars.

Over $700 million could be saved if Maryland's injury death rates decreased to those of Massachusetts, resulting in 23,700 fewer years of potentially productive life lost, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Steps, such as enforcing speed limits through electronic monitoring, and implementing tougher gun design, purchase and usage laws, could decrease injuries in Maryland. The study is published in the summer issue of Maryland Medicine.

In order to measure the cost of injuries, the researchers calculated the number of potential years of lost work productivity due to both nonfatal and fatal injury and illness, including heart diseases, malignant growths and respiratory diseases. They also compared mortality data from Maryland and Massachusetts, which are demographically and socio-economically similar states. However, Massachusetts has much lower injury mortality rates than Maryland.

The Hopkins researchers found that almost half of the total productive years of life lost in Maryland in 2003 to various diseases resulted from fatal and nonfatal injuries, mainly firearm and motor vehicle injuries. In 2003, the total estimated cost of treatment for injury victims in Maryland, over and above productivity losses, was $3 billion.

"In Maryland, both fatal and nonfatal injuries presented the highest costs for society, compared to other major diseases, like cancer and heart diseases. Therefore, it is essential to make injury control a priority and allocate funding for more research and programs,” said Cynthia Gazal-Carvalho, corresponding author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“The Burden of Violence and Injuries in Maryland” was co-authored by N. Borse, C. Gazal-Carvalho, A. Murthy, J. Onishi, V. Pham, M. Wen and T. Baker.

http://www.jhsph.edu