Childhood Injury Prevention

In 1989, the U.S. Committee on Injury Prevention and Control defined injury as “any unintentional or intentional damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to thermal, mechanical, electrical, or chemical energy or from the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen.” Attached to this definition are two main concepts that have shaped the field so far: First, unlike most diseases, injuries are defined both by the causative event and by the resulting pathology. This means that if, for example, bruising occurs in the absence of a mechanical insult to the body, such as in the case of a bleeding disorder, it cannot be considered an injury. Likewise, a near drowning that results in no pathology does not constitute an injury, even if the ...