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Secondary Injuries Among Individuals With Disabilities
Currently 40 to 50 million people live in the United States with a variety of disabilities and this number is expected to increase substantially in the coming years. Injury and safety research has recently emerged as an important new direction in promoting the health and wellness of individuals with disabilities, and there is now increased attention on safety research and injury prevention among this vulnerable population. Individuals with disabilities are believed to face a higher injury risk than their healthy counterparts due to deficiencies in gait/motor control, impairments in mental processing and an inability to adjust to their environment.
Although limited in number, previous studies on injuries among individuals with disabilities have indicated that individuals with disabilities are at significantly increased risk for unintentional injuries. Therefore, there is a critical need to better understand the factors that impact the occurrence of injuries among individuals with disabilities, to identify injury patterns and to investigate the medical costs of these injuries. This research brief summarizes key findings from our previous studies, with an emphasis on children with disabilities. This document serves to highlight an important public health issue in the United States and encourage dialogue on the development of focused, coordinated strategies for safety research and injury prevention among individuals with disabilities.
View the Research Report
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