OBJECTIVETo analyze the status and trend of injury deaths in Chinese people, and provide basic evidence for injury interventions.

METHODSData came from 2004-2005 the 3rd national retrospective sampling survey of death cause and covered 31 province-level regions and 160 surveillance spots in the interior of China, Total 142 660 482 person years were investigated. To describe the status of injury deaths, the crude death rate, years of potential life lost (YPLL), working years of potential life lost (WYPLL) and the standardized death rate were calculated. The population used for standardization was from census in 2000 and each five-year was counted as an age group; To analyze the trend of injury deaths, the constitution of the death causes were calculated based on the data of 1991-2000 national disease surveillance system which covered more than 10 000 000 population and 145 surveillance spots.

RESULTSThe total number of residents in survey districts died of injury between 2004 and 2005 was 87 753 (male 59 664, female 28 089, urban 23 308, rural 64 445); the crude death rate of injury in China 2004-2005 was 61.51/100 000 and accounting for 10.10% of all deaths; the standardized death rate was 58.45/100 000, ranking the fourth among the main cause of death for Chinese people. The YPLL of injury was 1579.61 person years per 100 000 and the WYPLL was 1721.41 person years per 100 000. The crude death rate of injury was 81.76/100 000 in male and 40.31/100 000 in female; the standardized death rates were 79.96/100 000 and 36.25/100 000, respectively. Injury mortality in male was two times higher than that in female. The crude death rates of injury were 48.66/100 000 in urban area and 68.01/100 000 in rural area; the standardized death rate were 44.08/100 000 and 66.25/100 000, respectively; the mortality in rural area was 1.4 times higher than that in urban area. The mortality for the aged 15 - 44 was 48.94/100 000(35 497/72 531 671) and accounting for 40% of all deaths, injury was the first cause of death for the aged 15 - 44. During 2004-2005, the top five causes of death related to injury were traffic accidents, suicide, falls, drowning and poisoning; the cases were 29 669, 18 678, 10 901, 7752, 4857 respectively in survey districts; the crude death rate were 20.80/100 000, 13.09/100 000, 7.64/100 000, 5.43/100 000, 3.40/100 000 respectively. From 1991 to 2005, the proportion of all injury deaths due to traffic accident increased from 15.00% (1551/10 338) to 33.79% (14 792/43 774) which showed a rising trend, the proportion of all injury deaths due to suicide decreased from 26.66% (2756/10 338) to 20.46% (8599/43 774) and the proportion of all injury deaths due to fall increased from 5.15% (532/10 338) to 12.87% (5630/43 774).

CONCLUSIONInjury is the primary cause of death resulting in premature death among Chinese people, traffic accident is the first cause of injury death. Since 1990s, the pattern of injury mortality of Chinese people has changed.