Susan P. Baker, professor and founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, along with Dr. Guohua Li, alumni of the Center and professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, have published the most comprehensive reference book to date on the methods and approaches underpinning the scientific discipline of injury control and prevention. Baker and Dr. Li brought together a team of global experts from public health, medicine, engineering, and behavioral and social sciences to write about the latest advances in theories and methods for understanding the causes, mechanisms, and outcomes of injury as well as the strategies to prevent injuries. The 36 chapters are written by some of the most accomplished researchers in the world, including several Center faculty: Dr. Shannon Frattaroli (Qualitative Methods), Dr. Renan Castillo (Functional Outcomes), Dr. David Bishai (Injury Costing Frameworks), and Dr. Andrea Gielen and Eileen McDonald (Behavioral Approach). Called a milestone and a “bedrock text” for researchers by the publisher, Springer, this is an essential reference book for anyone interested in violence prevention, emergency medical services, trauma care, risk assessment, crash investigation and litigation, and vehicle, occupational, recreational, and home safety. The book allows the reader to appreciate how far the field of injury research has come since its beginning, as reflected by the following:
• Injury is no longer considered a result of bad luck; it is not simply an “act of god”.
• Injury is predictable, preventable, and treatable, and even in a crash, fall, or shooting, there are effective interventions to lessen the risk, severity, and outcome of an injury.
• Injury is now widely recognized as a health problem, and in the field of public health and medicine, the word accident is avoided by mentioning the crash, poisoning, fall, or other injury-producing event.
• Injury is the subject of rigorous inquiries and interventions from multiple disciplines.
The kindle version of the book is online at Injury Research. More research and programs are needed to address the elevated rate of motor vehicle-related deaths among American Indian and Alaska Native populations, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. To better understand this racial and ethnic disparity, the authors conducted a systematic review of literature published over the past twenty years and found just seven studies describing the problem, and only seven that tested interventions. Despite overall declines in motor vehicle deaths in the U.S., deaths are highest among American Indian and Alaska Natives, with a motor vehicle death rate that is three times the rate for the Asian and Pacific Islander population—the population with the lowest rate. “The small number of studies in the peer-reviewed literature is surprising given the enormous human and economic impact of motor vehicle-related deaths in this population,” said lead study author Keshia Pollack, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. “If injury disparities are going to be eliminated, support for research and programs targeting those groups disproportionately impacted needs to be made more readily available.” To access the study press release, please click here. The study is published in the January issue of Epidemiologic Reviews, which is focused on injury. The special issue was edited by Susan Baker, the founding director and professor with the Injury Center, and Dr. Guohua Li, an alumnus of the Center who is a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documents a need for increased injury prevention efforts in many of the most popular activities for kids (walking, bicycling, swimming, sports and playground use) in the United States. Injury is the leading cause of death for young people in the U.S., yet many public health efforts to promote physical activity in kids do not consider the numerous available strategies to incorporate injury prevention. The report, published online in the journal Health and Place, outlines how injury prevention and child obesity professionals can work together to prevent injury while promoting active lifestyles in kids. "Many of the activities currently recommended to reduce obesity in kids are also the leading causes of activity-related injury," explained Center faculty Keshia Pollack, PhD, the study’s lead author. "There are many behavioral, environmental and policy approaches proven to make exercise activities safer for kids, which we outline in our study." For example, efforts are underway at the federal, state and local levels to increase the number of kids who walk to school; kids who walk to/from school each day are more likely to meet their daily recommended level of physical activity than kids who do not and, over time, walking or biking to school helps children develop an early habit of engaging in physical activity. The researchers note, however, that while pedestrian injury is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among U.S. children ages 5 to 14, many effective interventions exist to improve pedestrian safety, particularly changes to the built environment such as traffic-calming measures (i.e., speed humps, traffic circles) and enforcement of traffic laws. "The key is breaking down the silos so injury prevention is incorporated into strategies to increase physical activity," said Pollack. "The goal should be to maximize the benefits of physical activity programs and avoid the possible unintended consequences of increased injury." To access the complete press release, please click here.
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