The epidemiology of injuries in adolescents.

Injuries are the major health problem of adolescents. Injuries are the leading cause of death in the adolescent age group and the leading cause of potentially productive years of life lost in the nation. Nonfatal injuries are also very common, generating frequent physician visits, hospital admission, and high medical care costs. The road is the most dangerous environment for teens where motor vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and bicyclists all sustain frequent injuries. Alcohol and other drugs are often contributing factors to these injuries. Head and spinal cord injury result in many permanent disabilities. At school, children usually sustain nonfatal injuries in sports activities. Injuries at home are less common among adolescents than among younger children. The farm environment is an understudied, but dangerous environment. There is a need for standardization of data sets and age grouping within data sets to better understand the epidemiology of injuries in adolescents.