Challenges for injury prevention among the elderly in Kazakhstan

Injury prevention is one of the most important issues facing governmental public health programs today. Injuries lead to premature mortality and disability of the population, decrease quality of life, and damage community property. Data demonstrate that 54.1% of domestic (household related) and traffic injuries among the elderly were caused by a general lowering of attention and inadequate caution associated with increased age. This shows the necessity for the development of injury-prevention programs targeting the elderly. Currently, several different types of institutions working in areas such as public health, promotion of healthy lifestyles, social and clinical medicine are engaged in a period of detailed study of the injury status and discussion of strategies to implement injury prevention programs among the elderly. These programs must be oriented toward both the creation of safe injury-free environments and to actively engage the elderly to increase overall physical fitness to increase self-injury protection.