Spinal Cord Injury - Epidemiology

Epidemiology

Spinal injury can occur without trauma. Many people suffer transient loss of function ("stingers") in sports accidents or pain in "whiplash" of the neck without neurological loss and relatively few of these suffer spinal cord injury sufficient to warrant hospitalization. The prevalence of spinal cord injury is not well known in many large countries. In some countries, such as Sweden and Iceland, registries are available. In the United States, the incidence of spinal cord injury has been estimated to be about 40 cases (per 1 million people) per year or around 12,000 cases per year. The most common causes of spinal cord injury are motor vehicle accidents, falls, violence and sports injuries. The average age at the time of injury has slowly increased from a reported 29 years of age in the mid-1970s to a current average of around 40. Over 80% of the spinal injuries reported to a major national database occurred in males. In the United States there are around 250,000 individuals living with spinal cord injuries. In China, the incidence of spinal cord injury is approximately 60,000 per year.