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Drug overdose has become leading cause of death from injury in US

BMJ 2015; 350 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h3328 (Published 22 June 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h3328
  1. Michael McCarthy
  1. 1Seattle

More than 44 000 people in the United States died as a result of a drug overdose in 2013 (figure), making it the leading cause of death from injury in the country, says a report on the effect of injuries released on 17 June.1 Overall, injuries killed more than 193 000 people in 2013 in the US and were the leading cause of death among people aged 1 to 44 years, the report said.

The report details the health effects of injuries in the US and scores individual states on the basis of their injury prevention efforts. It was prepared by the Trust for America’s Health, a non-profit health advocacy organization, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The state scores were based on whether the state had implemented such measures as requiring children to ride in car seats and restricting teenagers’ driving after 10 pm or whether they had reached certain …

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