Emergency Care Makes Cities Safer to Live in than Rural Areas

A new study out of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) suggested it is safer to live in large cities than rural towns in terms of death by unintentional injury.

The team of researchers, lead by UPenn professor and emergency room practitioner Sage Myers, found that cities have much better access to trauma care and therefore can save numerous lives from sudden injury.

"The findings definitely surprised me," Myers told the Los Angeles Times. "Homicide rates are higher in cities, and people think of those more emotional and sensationalized dangers, but the risk of motor vehicle accidents and machinery accidents is much higher in rural areas."

The study, published Tuesday in the journal Annals of Emergency Room Medicine, analyzed information collected from a database containing death certificates from across the nation. The team used 1.3 million cases of death by injury and excluded terrorist attacks.

The risk of homicide is often the scariest aspect of living in a big city, but although the rates are higher in cities, the chance of dying from an unintentional incident is 40 percent higher in a rural area.

"Cars, guns and drugs are the unholy trinity causing the majority of injury deaths in the U.S.," Myers told NBC News.

Car crashes accounted for the most common type or injury-related death. In most rural areas, an average of 28 people per 100,000 died from a car crash versus 11 per 100,000 in cities.

For children and for adults 45 and older, firearm-related deaths were higher in rural areas, but for people aged 20-44, guns caused a higher percentage of deaths in cities.

Dr. Howard Mell, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the study seems to go against conventional thinking. He said the results are due to cities having easy access to emergency medical care that can not be found in rural areas.

"At the end of the day, it's about access to care and how far you are from a trauma center," Mell said. "How fast you can get to center with trained physicians and oftentimes into the operating room."