Preventing selfie‐related incidents: Taking a public health approach to reduce unnecessary burden on emergency medicine services

Abstract

AbstractUnintentional deaths from selfies have received limited exposure in emergency medicine literature; yet trauma remains the leading cause of death and disability in children and young adults, and most of those implicated in a selfie incident are in this demographic. Selfie‐related injuries and deaths may be a relatively new phenomenon, but data suggest they are a public health hazard that is not going away. Emergency medicine practitioners may have a role to play in the primary and secondary prevention of selfie incidents, including delivering opportunistic behaviour change messaging to those who are at risk of being injured or killed in a selfie‐related incident, particularly young (14–25 years) males. Emergency medicine specialists should be aware of the dangers of selfie‐related incidents and understand their polytraumatic presentation.