Nonfatal Unintentional
Home Injury

The majority of unintentional home injuries do not result in death. In fact, for every one home injury death, there are more than 650 nonfatal home injuries. The top five causes of nonfatal, unintentional home injuries are (1) falls, (2) injuries in which a person was struck by or against an object or person (denoted "struck by/against"), (3) injuries caused by sharp objects, such as knives or broken glass (denoted "cut/pierce"), (4) injuries associated with performing movements too strenuous for the body, such as excessive physical exercise or using too much energy in pushing, lifting or pulling (e.g., a back injury from lifting furniture) (denoted "overexertion") and (5) poisonings.

Adults 70 and older and children between 1 and 4 have the highest rates of nonfatal, unintentional home injury (Table 2.2, Figure 2.2). Unlike home injury death where males have the highest rates across all age groups, females 40 and older have higher rates of nonfatal, unintentional home injury, compared with males in the same age groups. Across all age groups, females experienced more than half (53.1%) of all nonfatal home injuries, while males experienced 46.9 percent of the injuries.