Injury-Related Deaths according to Environmental, Demographic, and Lifestyle Factors

BACKGROUND: Environmental, demographic, and lifestyle variables have been associated with injury-related deaths. The current study identifies the simultaneous association of selected environmental, demographic, and lifestyle variables with deaths from homicide, unintentional injuries, and suicide. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Analyses are based on county-level mortality data in the contiguous United States, 2011–15. Basic summary statistics and Poisson regression were used to evaluate the data. RESULTS: The selected causes of death were impacted differently by age, sex, and race: for homicide, mortality rates were greater in ages 20–39, males, and blacks; for unintentional injuries, the rates increased with age, most noticeably in the oldest age group, and were highest among males and whites; and for suicide, the rates tended to increase with age and were greater in males and whites. Mortality rates from homicide were positively associated with poverty, cigarette smoking, air temperature, and leisure-time physical inactivity. They were negatively associated with precipitation and sunlight. Mortality rates from unintentional injuries were positively associated with altitude, cigarette smoking, air temperature, poverty, obesity, and precipitation. They were negatively associated with population density. Mortality rates from suicides were positively associated with altitude, cigarette smoking, obesity, air temperature, and precipitation and negatively associated with population density. CONCLUSION: The results confirm and extend previous research in which death from homicide, unintentional injuries, and suicide are distinctly associated with a combination of environmental, demographic, and lifestyle variables. The findings may be useful in developing strategies for reducing injury-related deaths.