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A CRITIQUE OF ACCIDENT RESEARCH
Author(s) -
McFarland Ross A.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1963.tb13312.x
Subject(s) - annals , citation , public health , accident (philosophy) , library science , sociology , classics , computer science , history , medicine , philosophy , epistemology , nursing
The gains made in the control of accidents over the past t h t y years appear on the whole to be relatively small as compared to the improvement in the control of disease. Also, the overall population death rates from accidents have decreased only slightly. Indeed, in some important classes of accidents, such as those involving motor vehicles, one can scarcely say that an individual’s chances of avoiding being fatally injured in a given year have really been improved at all (Terry, 1961; McFarland and Moore, 1962). Comparisons concerning nonfatal injury are less reliable, but the findings in the recent National Health Survey indicate that a formidable problem remains to be solved if effective control of accidents is to be achieved. Each year in the U. S. about 47 million persons suffer nonfatal injury, severe enough to require medical attention, or to result in a curtailment of usual activity for a day or more (Terry, 1961).