Emmanuel S
Planning & Development Division, Ministry of Health HQ, Singapore.
Ann Acad Med Singap. 1991 Mar;20(2):190-5.
Injuries are a major public health problem in developed industrialised countries and are the leading cause of premature mortality. This study has shown the same picture for Singapore. Injuries are the fifth leading cause of crude death but the most important cause of premature mortality being responsible for 23,800 potential years of life lost before the age of 65 years. The most vulnerable ages are from the preschool to the economically active age groups. Singapore males have twice the death rate of females (52 vs 20 per 100,000 population) because of the relatively higher proportion of males (78.5% among males vs 48% among females) who work and are therefore at higher risk. Indian males have the highest ethnic-and-sex-specific mortality rates (107 vs 48 among Chinese males and 39 among Malay males per 1000 population). Road traffic accidents were the leading cause of mortality from injuries but this has been over taken by suicides. Information on the specific causes and specific high risk behaviour and factors for injuries in Singapore is weak. This needs to be strengthened to enable more effective cause-specific control programmes to be drawn up.
在发达工业化国家，伤害是一个主要的公共卫生问题，并且是过早死亡的首要原因。本研究表明新加坡的情况也是如此。伤害是粗死亡率的第五大原因，但却是过早死亡的最重要原因，导致65岁之前损失了23800个潜在寿命年。最易受伤害的年龄段是从学龄前儿童到经济活跃年龄组。由于工作的男性比例相对较高（男性中占78.5%，女性中占48%），因此新加坡男性的死亡率是女性的两倍（每10万人中分别为52人和20人），所以男性面临的风险更高。印度男性的种族和性别特异性死亡率最高（每1000人口中，中国男性为107人，马来男性为39人，印度男性为48人）。道路交通事故曾是伤害致死的主要原因，但如今已被自杀所取代。关于新加坡伤害的具体原因、特定高危行为和因素的信息较为匮乏。这需要得到加强，以便能够制定更有效的针对具体原因的控制方案。
