Predictably, the number one and two causes of death for males 45+ is heart disease and cancer. These diseases are well known in the public eye with significant resources put towards the prevention and treatment of these conditions, and rightfully so.
The eye-opener for me is this statistic for young males. The number one cause of death for males from age 1 to 44 is "unintentional injury". This trend is also seen in females with "unintentional injury" the leading cause of death from age 1 to 34. Unintentional injury is used rather than "accident" because public health officials believe that many can be potentially preventable.
Though a death at any age is difficult, the demise of a young person is especially tragic. In addition, the loss of productive years of work and reproduction are also quite a loss to society at large.
Some things that come to mind for young men to prevent such tragedies are:
- Don't drink or use drugs and operate machinery
- Don't speed
- Wear your seatbelts
- Use good firearm and hunting safety practices
- Wear a helmet for bikes, motorbikes, ATV's
- Wear a life vest when using watercraft
- Be aware of workplace safety
On Tuesday, June 12, I will be distributing unintentional injury prevention materials at the Concord Hospital cafeteria to celebrate Men's Health Week - more on that celebration in another blog post.
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