Injury in humans

An injury is damage to living tissue caused by a sudden physical force. In humans, injuries can be either deliberate or accidental, and they result from blunt force, penetrating objects, burns, toxic substances, suffocation, or physical overexertion. A serious injury is usually treated by a medical professional, and the approach depends heavily on the specific type of harm. Traffic collisions are the leading cause of accidental injury and injury-related death. Injuries are not the same as chronic illnesses, psychological trauma, infections, or medical procedures, though they can contribute to any of these. Several major health organizations have created systems to classify and describe human injuries.

Injuries can be intentional—such as violence against others or self-harm—or unintentional, which may be unforeseeable or due to negligence. The most common unintentional injuries, in order, are traffic accidents, falls, drowning, burns, and accidental poisoning. Some injuries are more frequent in developed versus developing countries. For example, traffic injuries in developing nations are more likely to kill pedestrians than drivers. Scalding burns are more common in developed countries, while open-flame burns are more common in developing ones. As of 2021, about 4.4 million people die from injuries each year worldwide, nearly 8% of all deaths. Of these, 3.16 million are unintentional and 1.25 million are intentional. Traffic accidents cause roughly one-third of injury deaths, suicide about one-sixth, and homicide about one-tenth. Tens of millions more require medical care for nonfatal injuries each year, and injuries account for about 10% of all years lived with disability. Men are twice as likely as women to die from injury. In 2013, 367,000 children under five died from injuries, down from 766,000 in 1990.

The World Health Organization created the International Classification of External Causes of Injury (ICECI), which sorts injuries by mechanism, objects or substances involved, place of occurrence, activity at the time, human intent, and other modules. These codes help identify injury patterns in specific groups and support research into causes and prevention. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics developed the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS), first published in 1992 and updated since, which classifies injuries by nature, body