Smoke alarms and residential fire mortality in the United States: an ecologic study

Abstract

Death and injury from residential fires remains a major public health challenge in the United States and operable smoke alarms on each level of a home have been estimated to reduce the risk of death and injuries from residential fires. A multiple-group analytic ecologic study was undertaken with ecologic data at both the group- and individual-level for each state of the United States. The age standardized mortality rates for residential fire in the US was 1.61 per 100,000, with the highest fire-mortality rates occurring in the southeastern states of the US. An estimated 93.6% of US households have a smoke alarm. The findings of the analysis highlight that smoke alarms, when represented at an..