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Safety Tips 

Preventing Spinal Cord Injuries

The following tips, based on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Spinal Cord Injury Information Network, may reduce the risk of spinal cord injury:

• Wear a seat belt every time you drive a car or ride in one. Make sure your children are buckled into a child safety seat, booster seat, or seat belt (as appropriate for their age). Motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of SCI.
• Keep firearms and ammunition locked in a cabinet or safe when not in use. The second leading cause of SCI is violence, most often related to firearms use.
• Prevent falls–the third leading cause of SCI–by
• using a step stool with a grab bar to reach objects on high shelves;
• installing handrails on stairways;
• installing window guards to keep young children from falling out of windows;
• using safety gates at the top and bottom of stairs when young children are around.
• Play sports safely. For example:
• Wear all required safety gear.
• Never engage in head-first moves, such as spearing (in football, using the helmet to tackle) or sliding head-first into a base.
• Avoid hitting the boards with your head in ice hockey.
• Insist on spotters when performing new or difficult moves in gymnastics.

Who Is Affected?

Almost 11,000 people in the U.S. sustain a traumatic spinal cord injury each year, resulting in temporary or permanent sensory deficit, motor deficit, or bowel or bladder dysfunction. In this country, nearly 200,000 people live with an SCI-related disability.

More than half the people who sustain an SCI are between 16 and 30 years old. More males than females sustain this type of injury–the ratio is more than four to one. Blacks are at higher risk for SCI than whites, and the SCI rate among blacks has been rising in recent years. The most common cause of SCI is motor vehicle crashes, accounting for at least 35 percent of these injuries. Violence-related SCIs have been steadily increasing over the past two decades, and today, violence is associated with 30 percent of SCIs. Falls and sports cause 19 percent and 8 percent of SCI cases, respectively.

Safety Resources 

American Spinal Injury Association

ASIA offers a national directory of spinal cord injury prevention programs

(http://www.asia-spinalinjury.org/research/index.html). ASIA's phone number is 312-908-1242.

Paralyzed Veterans of America

PVA (www.pva.org) has information on living with SCI, including rehabilitation, living an active life, and sports and recreation after SCI. PVA's toll-free number is 1-800-424-8200. Or call the National Spinal Cord Injury Hotline at 1-800-962-9629.

Spinalcord Injury Information Network

Run by the University of Alabama, Birmingham, this site (www.spinalcord.uab.edu) provides answers to the most frequently asked questions about SCI.

References 

The data and safety tips in this fact sheet were obtained from the following sources:

CDC. Spinal cord surveillance data from AR, CO, GA, LA, MS, UT 1990-1994. Unpublished.

Johnson R. Traumatic spinal cord injury: Brief overview of impact. CDC. Unpublished.

Spinalcord Injury Information Network. Frequently asked questions. Available at http://www.spinalcord.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=20183 Accessed September 13, 1999.

Spinalcord Injury Information Network. Spinal cord injury: Facts and figures at a glance.

April 1999. Available at  www.sci.rehabm.uab.edu/docs/factsfig.htm. Accessed September 13, 1999.

Thurman D, Sniezek J, Johnson D, Greenspan A, Smith S. Guidelines for Surveillance of Central Nervous System Injury. Atlanta: CDC, 1995; II-3.