Injury in West Virginia: an introduction to injury control and prevention.

Each year, one of every four Americans sustains an injury severe enough to seek medical attention. Injuries account for 25% of all emergency department visits, 12% of all hospital admissions, and cost the nation over $180 billion annually. Despite being the leading cause of mortality for Americans under the age of 40, there is a lack of awareness of the epidemic of injuries and effective methods for their prevention. Many consider injuries to be the result of unavoidable accidents or unfortunate acts of God. In reality, injuries are diseases which have associated risk factors, demographic distributions, seasonal variations, epidemic episodes, and are predictable and preventable. This article describes injuries in West Virginia and discusses basic principles of injury control and prevention.