OBJECTIVE: To describe accurately the violence and injury mortality in a South African city and demonstrate the utility of secondary data sources to identify injury control priorities. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of medicolegal laboratory (state mortuary), forensic and police data. SETTING: Metropolitan Cape Town, 1994. RESULTS: Non-natural causes (deaths due to homicide, suicide, accidents and undetermined causes) accounted for almost 4000 deaths, which comprised approximately 30% of all-cause mortality during 1994. The five main violence and injury mortality categories were: homicide (1789 cases; 46% of all non-natural mortality), transport accidents (1130 cases; 29% of all non-natural mortality), fire (295 deaths; 8% of all non-natural mortality), suicide (291 deaths; 7% of all non-natural mortality) and drowning (96 cases; 2% of all non-natural mortality). CONCLUSIONS: Priority issues in injury control include the increasing homicidal and suicidal use of firearms, road and rail commuter injury and the spatial distribution of injury. Surveillance, based on non-natural mortality, should be included in local, regional and national health information systems.
OBJECTIVE: To describe accurately the violence and injury mortality in a South African city and demonstrate the utility of secondary data sources to identify injury control priorities. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of medicolegal laboratory (state mortuary), forensic and police data. SETTING: Metropolitan Cape Town, 1994. RESULTS: Non-natural causes (deaths due to homicide, suicide, accidents and undetermined causes) accounted for almost 4000 deaths, which comprised approximately 30% of all-cause mortality during 1994. The five main violence and injury mortality categories were: homicide (1789 cases; 46% of all non-natural mortality), transport accidents (1130 cases; 29% of all non-natural mortality), fire (295 deaths; 8% of all non-natural mortality), suicide (291 deaths; 7% of all non-natural mortality) and drowning (96 cases; 2% of all non-natural mortality). CONCLUSIONS: Priority issues in injury control include the increasing homicidal and suicidal use of firearms, road and rail commuter injury and the spatial distribution of injury. Surveillance, based on non-natural mortality, should be included in local, regional and national health information systems.
Authors: Matthew D Tyler; David B Richards; Casper Reske-Nielsen; Omeed Saghafi; Erica A Morse; Robert Carey; Gabrielle A Jacquet Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2017-05-08 Impact factor: 3.295
Authors: Richard Matzopoulos; Megan Prinsloo; Victoria Pillay-van Wyk; Nomonde Gwebushe; Shanaaz Mathews; Lorna J Martin; Ria Laubscher; Naeemah Abrahams; William Msemburi; Carl Lombard; Debbie Bradshaw Journal: Bull World Health Organ Date: 2015-03-13 Impact factor: 9.408