Non-collision injuries, physical activity, and wellbeing

Abstract

The World Health Organization 2018 update on global road safety reported 1.35 million road travel deaths worldwide in 2016. While this is the eighth leading cause of death overall, it is the leading cause of death for children and young people aged five to 29 years (World Health Organization, 2018). These numbers are five times higher than the estimated 251,000 non-firearm related deaths that occurred worldwide in 2016 not in war settings. More than 50% of these firearm deaths occurred in six American countries: USA, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Guatemala. Globally, almost two-thirds were murder [homicide]; over a quarter were suicide; around 18,000-25,000 were unintentional, corresponding to one in eleven such deaths. The proportions as well as the population rates varied dramatically by country (The Global Burden of Disease 2016 Injury Collaborators, 2018). There is a great need to learn from each other-not only across disciplines but also across topics. In the USA, the debate is generally focused on interpersonal violence. However, there are twice as many suicides as homicides by firearm in the USA, yet research on firearm violence is largely prevented by the Dickey amendment (Rivara et al., 2018).