One of the things you’ll see in our upcoming State Health Assessment is the fact that traumatic injury disproportionately impacts the American Indian population in Arizona. To dive into the issue deeper and to help us design more effective interventions, our Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Trauma System published our first Arizona American Indian Trauma Report last week.
The report was prepared from data contained in the Arizona State Trauma Registry for 2011. American Indians in Arizona have a trauma injury rate of 871 per 100,000 which is almost double the rates of other race/ethnicity groups in AZ. American Indians in Arizona also have a lower rate for reaching a trauma center within one hour after injury, a lower proportion of safety restraint use, and suffer significantly more injuries from motor vehicle traffic, struck by or against, falls, cuts or puncture, and other transportation and a greater proportion of injuries involving drugs or alcohol.
The Report was prepared in collaboration with a 21 member Work Group comprised of ADHS, Tribal, Tribal 638, ITCA, and IHS personnel. We’ll be using data from the report to assist in the development of trauma prevention programs that will reduce these health disparities statistics over time. A special thank you to the Work Group including Bureau staff Terry Mullins, Rogelio Martinez, Maureen Brophy, and Vatsal Chikani for preparing the report- along with Michael Allison, our Native American Liaison.
