The 1992 Surgeon General’s statement on domestic violence refers to injuries treated in hospital emergency departments. That statement fostered throughout public discourse claims that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women. Such claims occasionally explicitly refer to hospital emergency departments. For example, Congressional documents contain the following claims:

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women, accounting for nearly a third of their emergency room admissions. ^

Evidence indicates that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women, more common than auto accidents, muggings, and rapes by strangers combined. Indeed, it is the most frequent cause for women to seek attention at hospital emergency rooms.^

Battery is the single greatest cause of injury to women in the United States, accounting for more emergency room visits than all other injuries combined.^

At least 1380 instances of claims like “domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women” exist in judicial opinions, Congressional documents, law journal articles, and newspaper articles published since 1987. Across instances that assert the share of women’s hospital emergency room visits caused by domestic violence, the claimed share varies from one-fifth to one-third.

Injury-Related Visits to Hospital Emergency Departments
by Cause of Injury, 1992

for U.S. persons ages 18 and older

cause rank	cause of injury	women's injury-related visits	men's injury-related visits	difference women / men
1	Accident - falls	2,785,201	2,132,452	31%
2	Accident - motor vehicle	1,598,042	1,659,075	-4%
3	Accident - struck (ex. motor vehicle)	891,473	1,303,351	-32%
4	Accident - cut or pierced	782,386	1,479,544	-47%
5	Overexertion	565,780	754,580	-25%
6	Violence	489,944	780,524	-37%
7	Accident - other	468,280	822,696	-43%
8	Accident - natural and environmental	419,851	408,065	3%
9	Drugs (medical) and medical procedures	387,324	255,834	51%
10	Accident - fire, flames, submers	204,465	231,971	-12%
11	Accidental poisoning	178,512	190,848	-6%
12	Accident - machinery	131,490	315,996	-58%
13	Self-inflicted	63,779	54,621	17%
14	Law enforcement and war	11,087	41,664	-73%
	Cause not specified (inc. just place of occurrence)	1,543,204	2,316,915	-33%
	Total	10,520,818	12,748,136	-17%
Source: Tabulated from NHAMCS 1992. Injury-related visits accounted for 30% and 44% of all visits to hospital emergency departments for women and men, respectively. Illnesses accounted for the remaining shares.

Evaluated reasonably with respect to objective, credible data, claims that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women greatly exaggerate the extent of domestic violence against women. The U.S. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) provides nationally representative data on causes of visits to hospital emergency departments yearly since 1992. Tabulating 1992 NHAMCS data by causes grouped informatively and reasonably indicates that violence, which encompasses domestic violence and other violence, is the sixth largest cause of injury to women ages 18 and older. Compared to men, women suffer 37% fewer injury-related emergency visits from violence. Results are similar for women ages 15 to 44, although, across those ages, women suffer 12% fewer accidental falls than do men. Motor vehicle accidents and accidental falls account for far higher shares of injuries to women than does violence.

From the early 1990s, one could credible know that domestic violence accounts for about 1% of all women’s visits to hospital emergency departments. Persons seek attention at hospital emergency departments for both illnesses and injuries. NHAMCS data from 1992-1995 indicate that 30% of women’s hospital emergency department visits are due to injury. Of those visits due to injury, about 5% were due to violent injury. Of those visits due to violent injury, about 60% were due to domestic violence. Thus domestic violence against women accounted for about 1% (60% times 5% times 30%) of women’s visits to hospital emergency departments. That’s far less than claims that domestic violence accounts for one-fifth to one-third of women’s hospital emergency department visits.

Another objective, credible, nationally representative injury survey similarly indicates sensational overstatement of injuries from domestic violence against women. The U.S. National Electronic Injury Surveillance System All Injury Program (NEISS AIP) generated its first full-year of injury data in 2001. The NEISS is administered separately from the NHAMCS and differs in some technical respects from the NHAMCS. NEISS data on causes of injury similarly show that violence, which encompasses domestic violence and other violence, is the sixth largest cause of injury to women. Motor vehicle accidents and accidental falls account for far higher shares of injuries to women than does violence. Women suffer about a third fewer injuries from violence than men do. Domestic violence is far from the leading cause of injury to women.

Injury-Related Visits to Hospital Emergency Departments
by Cause of Injury, 2010

for U.S. persons ages 18 and older

cause rank	Cause of Injury	women's injury-related visits	men's injury-related visits	difference women / men
1	Unintentional Fall	3,001,936	2,061,441	46%
2	Unintentional MV-Occupant	1,371,493	1,176,192	17%
3	Unintentional Overexertion	1,264,774	1,505,984	-16%
4	Unintentional Struck By/Against	1,021,586	1,675,490	-39%
5	Unintentional Cut/Pierce	672,238	1,232,192	-45%
6	Other Assault -- Struck By/Against	418,860	625,909	-33%
7	Unintentional Other Bite/Sting	285,900	243,340	17%
8	Unintentional Unknown/Unspecified	193,374	314,201	-38%
9	Unintentional Other Transport	180,517	223,465	-19%
10	Unintentional Fire/Burn	160,314	183,544	-13%
11	Unintentional Foreign Body	150,300	308,958	-51%
12	Unintentional Poisoning	148,087	231,037	-36%
13	Unintentional Other Specified	140,195	232,514	-40%
14	Self-harm Poisoning	104,513	76,245	37%
15	Unintentional Dog Bite	92,626	102,018	-9%
16	Unintentional Pedestrian	49,650	61,730	-20%
17	Unintentional Pedal Cyclist	47,119	144,633	-67%
18	Unintentional Machinery	42,469	245,657	-83%
19	Other Assault -- Cut/Pierce	28,403	88,477
20	Sexual Assault All Injury Causes	27,575
20	Unintentional Motorcyclist		142,308
	total injury-related visits	9,553,321	11,123,451	-14%
	total violence (ex. self-harm and legal intervention)	538,727	807,375	-33%
Source: NEISS AIP, via WISQARS. Listing of top-20 cause of injury for women and men, respectively. Blank data cells indicate a cause of injury in women's top-20, but not men's, or vice versa.

The claim that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women persists for a variety of reasons. Unreasonable, misleading, or incredible statements can be made to support it. Publications of NHAMCS summary statistics have largely avoided publishing directly relevant statistics on causes of injury. NEISS data on leading causes of nonfatal injury have been readily and publicly available through the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System(WISQARS). Nonetheless, persons publicly discussing domestic violence against women have been largely uninterested in learning from the best available statistics on causes of injuries. Structural biases of public discourse favor preferential concern for women and criminal suspicion of men.