Between 19,000 and 20,000 U.S. residents were killed unintentionally in their homes in 1998, and at least 7 million suffered disabling injuries, according to the first State of Home Safety in America report, which was based on the study -- the largest and most comprehensive ever done on home safety.
To society, the resulting costs totaled almost $380 billion. The death toll uncovered during the research, conducted by UNC investigators for the Home Safety Council, is an underestimate because it could not factor in all poisonings, which are significant, the scientists say. "Falls are by far the major problem, followed by poisonings," said study leader Dr. Carol W. Runyan. "We were surprised to find that poisonings occur not just in little children, but also in large numbers of adults -- even middle-aged adults -- who appear to die from mixtures of prescription drugs and in some cases illicit drugs as well."
Runyan is director of UNC's Injury Prevention Research Center and professor of health behavior and health education at the School of Public Health. Along with Home Safety Council staff, she released the study in Washington, D.C., today (Thursday, Sept. 26). After falls and poisonings, the leading causes of such deaths were fires, inhalations and suffocation and drowning, she said. Among other findings were that states with the fewest home injury deaths per 100,000 population were Massachusetts, Utah, Maryland, Minnesota and New York. Those with the most were New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Arizona, Mississippi and Wisconsin, followed by the Dakotas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
Overall, New England was the safest region. New Mexico saw 17.31 deaths per 100,000, which was almost five times greater than Massachusetts' 3.56 toll. Women were slightly more likely to seek emergency care, but men were 70 percent more likely to die. "One of the most important things we found was that data needed to understand this problem was woefully inadequate," Runyan said. "In almost all but one of the data sets we looked at, in some 30 percent of fatalities, people could not determine -- or did not record -- whether the unintentional deaths happened at home. That means we just don't know the answers to some important questions."
The Home Safety Council commissioned the study since it wanted "to benchmark the state of home safety in America, getting an understanding of what the problems are, how big they are, who is affected and what the cost is," Runyan said. Information came from death certificates, emergency and clinic records, previous studies and a phone survey of 1,003 U.S. households.
She and her colleagues, Drs. Stephen Marshall, Anna Waller and Tamera Coyne-Beasley, conducted the investigation, along with help from staff and students at the Injury Prevention Research Center. Marshall is assistant professor at the department of epidemiology in public health, while Coyne-Beasley and Waller are assistant professors, respectively, at the UNC School of Medicine's pediatrics and emergency medicine departments.
Good news is that almost all families now have smoke alarms at home, Runyan said. Problems areas include inadequate railings and banisters, and unsafe storage of medications and other poisons. Also, few people know if their hot water heaters are set too high, and fewer than half of the one third of U.S. household with firearms keep them locked up appropriately.
"These are dramatic numbers, and further research needs to be conducted to explain them, but in the meantime, it is clear that no matter where you live, it's important to recognize the potential safety hazards in your home and correct them," said David Oliver, president and executive director of the Home Safety Council. "Many Americans don't make things safer because for the most part they don't even know the problem exists."
Survey data indicated that 56 percent of U.S. adults could think of nothing they should or would do in the coming year to prevent unintentional injuries or make their homes safer, Oliver said. Ted Miller of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation determined costs of the unintentional injuries and deaths.
Originally founded by the Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse in 1993, the Home Safety Council is now an independent, non-profit, North Carolina-based organization dedicated to reducing unintentional injuries at home. More information is available at www.homesafetycouncil.org.
Note: Runyan can be reached via cell phone at 919-423-3346 Thursday, Sept. 26 and at 919-966-3916 thereafter.