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Public Beliefs About The Preventability Of Unintentional Injury Deaths, Deborah C. Girasek

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

This report is based upon the results of a national random digit dialed telephone survey in which 943 adults were queried. Subjects reported the proportion of deaths due to motor vehicle crashes, falls, fires/burns, drowning and poisoning that they felt were preventable. On average, respondents believed that 56% of ‘fatal accidents’ were preventable; as were 62% of motor vehicle crash deaths, 53% of fall deaths, 67% of drownings, 62% of fire/burn fatalities and 70% of accidental poisonings. Logistic regression models predicting preventability beliefs differed according to the type of injury event in question, but socio-economic status and perceived alcohol involvement …