The Center for Injury Research and Policy has selected Daesha Ramachadran, a PhD student in the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, and Lauren Waltersdorf, an MPH candidate, as the winners of the Native American Injury Prevention Competition. Each will receive $5,000 for use during the 2010-2011 academic year.
Daesha will conduct a study of teen perceptions of what is ‘normal’ or typical of relationships among American Indian teenagers, as well as where they get information about healthy relationships and seek help or advice. The ultimate objective is to reduce interpersonal violence in this population. Lauren will study the serious problem of motor vehicle-related deaths and injuries in young Native Americans. She hopes to identify differences among various tribes and identify policy interventions with the potential of reducing road deaths in this high-risk population.
While injuries are a major cause of death and disability in the United States, certain groups are more affected. For example, motor vehicle-related death rates of Native Americans are twice the rates for other Americans, and suicide rates among 15-24 year old Native Americans are more than double the U.S. average.
These powerful statistics are behind this new effort by the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy to encourage the School’s public health students to undertake research projects on injuries to Native Americans or other indigenous people of the United States or Canada.
The hope is that their work will ultimately lead to needed policy and/or environmental changes that will reduce the burden of injury in the Native American population.
Two winners will receive $5,000 each to study injury in Native Americans
While injuries are a major cause of death and disability in the United States, certain groups are more affected. For example, motor vehicle-related death rates of Native Americans are twice the rates for other Americans, and suicide rates among 15-24 year old Native Americans are more than double the U.S. average. These powerful statistics are behind a new effort by the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy to encourage the School’s public health students to undertake research projects on injuries to Native Americans or other indigenous people of the United States or Canada. The hope is that their work will ultimately lead to needed policy and/or environmental changes that will reduce the burden of injury in the Native American population. Specifically, two awards of $5,000 each will be granted for use during the 2010-11 academic year to degree candidates at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Examples of products of eligible proposed projects include MPH Capstone projects (or equivalent), proposal for a dissertation focused on injury in Native Americans, and/or a manuscript to be submitted for publication
Applications should be submitted (along with a CV and indication of department and degree program) prior to September 20, 2010 to Professor Susan P. Baker, sbaker@jhsph.edu. A one-page description of the proposed research should include the specific injury problem or issue, its public health importance, general research and anticipated product (due 6/30/11). The award money can be used for tuition, travel, conferences, data acquisition, computer or other expenses, or stipend. An approximate budget allocation should be included. For further information or to discuss a possible project, feel free to contact:
Susan P. Baker, sbaker@jhsph.edu Inez Tenenbaum, MEd, JD, Chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently visited the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and met with School officials, faculty and staff from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, and MPH students. The visit was an opportunity for both institutions to share information and brainstorm ideas for collaboration. In addition to taking a personalized tour of the CARES mobile safety center, Tenenbaum delivered remarks on Pathways to Increased Public Health and Safety to almost one hundred students, staff and faculty. “The Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy has a strong and successful history of preventing injuries that occur as a result of consumer products,” noted Andrea C. Gielen, ScM, ScD, director of the Center. “Hearing directly from the Chairman and her staff about their vision for consumer product safety in the U.S. allowed us to identify areas for future collaborations around our shared mission.” These opportunities include working together to increase awareness of the Commission’s current consumer education campaigns on pool safety and safe sleep, overseas training programs to ensure product safety, and opportunities for Hopkins masters' students to complete Capstone projects and other hands-on opportunities at CPSC, which is located in Bethesda, MD. This last opportunity is of particular interest to Jon Vernick, MPH, JD, Deputy Director of the Injury Center: “Training the next generation of leaders is a priority for the Center, and I look forward to seeing our students get real world experiences in product safety research and practice.” To see photos of Tenenbaum's tour of the CARES Mobile Safety Center and her visit to the School, please visit the Center’s Facebook page.
For more information on the CPSC, please click here. A comprehensive new report in the spring issue of Contemporary Drug Problems examines the influence of alcohol marketing on youth, and includes case studies from around the world. The report is authored by David Jernigan, Ph.D., associate professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. “From Asia to Latin America to Africa, the marketing of alcohol is pervasive and cuts across all types of media, including film, music and mobile phones,” said Jernigan. “Particularly among youth, who tend to be heavily influenced by their environment, the outcome is a greater likelihood that adolescents will initiate alcohol consumption.” According to Jernigan, the solution must involve systematically monitoring alcohol marketing, particularly in developing countries, in addition to regulatory strategies. For example, the article cites a 2006 study that showed a 28% reduction in alcohol advertising would reduce the percentage of adolescents who drink monthly from 25% to between 24 and 21%, and the percentage who engage in binge drinking monthly from 12% to between 11 and 8%. For more information on the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, please click here. The Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has named the Rebuild Program at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA with the 2010 Community Hero Award in recognition of the program’s innovation and success in improving the lives of trauma survivors. During a ceremony and reception at the School, students, staff and faculty heard directly from Rebuild participants on how the program has positively impacted their lives. Started by Anna Bradford, MSW, LCWS, the program is designed to support recovering trauma patients and their caregivers. It was the first comprehensive support program for trauma survivors and their families in the United Stares, and has since served as a model for similar programs across the country. The program currently offers five different support groups for patients recovering from general trauma, spinal cord injury or traumatic brain injury, in addition to patient-focused training for healthcare professionals to reinforce their vital role in the healing process. It is currently managed by Daniel Stanto, MSW, LCSW. The Community Hero Award was created by the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy to recognize distinguished injury prevention leaders and exemplary programs that contribute to improving safety in our communities. Past awardees include Carole Alexander, executive director of the House of Ruth of Maryland and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, former commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department. A new study by Center faculty members Shannon Frattaroli and Keshia Pollack describes how using street outreach workers is an effective strategy to reach and engage youth with the goal of violence prevention and intervention. Street outreach workers are typically members of the community who intervene to prevent conflict and retaliation, and in some programs, also connect individuals with needed services, such as housing and job training.
While cities across the United States are utilizing street outreach workers as part of their violence prevention programs, including CeaseFire in Chicago and Safe Streets in Baltimore, this is the first peer-reviewed study on a program to be published. This is also the first evaluation of this type of program in a smaller community; the researchers studied the street outreach workers program run by the United Teen Equality Center in Lowell, Mass., a city of 105,167 residents north of Boston.
"These features should be considered both by communities with existing street outreach worker programs and by communities in the process of establishing one, as they have demonstrated importance for both program success and sustainability," said Shannon Frattaroli, PhD, MPH, assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy and Management and the paper's lead author.
To access the complete press release, please click here. Trauma center care not only saves lives, it is a cost-effective way of treating major trauma, according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy. Although treatment at a trauma center is more expensive, the benefits of this approach in terms of lives saved and quality of life-years gained outweigh the costs. The study finds that the added cost of treatment at a trauma center versus nontrauma center is only $36,319 for every life-year gained or $790,931 per life saved. While previous studies have found trauma center care decreases one’s likelihood of dying following injury, this is the most comprehensive study to date to also measure cost-effectiveness. The results are published in the July issue of The Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical Care. “In today’s economic and health care climates, it is critical to determine whether the benefits of expensive therapies warrant their higher costs,” said Ellen MacKenzie, PhD, the Fred and Julie Soper Professor & Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Taken together with our previous work demonstrating the effectiveness of trauma centers in saving lives, the results unequivocally support the need for continued efforts and funding for regionalized systems of trauma care in the United States.” To access the complete press release, please click here. New Research by Professor Susan Baker finds falls are the most common injury for both urban and rural elderly in China, responsible for more than two-thirds of all injuries in people 65 and older. This is the first study to uncover the leading causes of non-fatal injuries among older adults in China, who make up 9 percent of the total population. The report is available on the Website of the journal Injury Prevention. “The identification of the most common locations and causes of injury is useful for the development of interventions and priorities,” said Susan P. Baker, MPH, professor with the Injury Center. “The results indicate the divorced and widowed elderly should be targeted as high-risk groups for injury. Prevention programs for all major causes of injury need to be developed as soon as possible in China.” To access the complete press release, please click here. A new article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “An Urgent Call to Action in Support of Injury Control Research Centers,” reports that funding disparities for research are enormous across health problems, with funding for injury, the third leading cause of death in the U.S., far out of proportion to the magnitude of the problem. For example, the Federally-funded Injury Control Research Center (ICRC) program, created in 1987 with a $10 million Congressional appropriation to support five Centers, now supports eleven Centers who receive less than $1 million annually to support their work. Using funding to the National Cancer Institute as the standard and calibrating based on total deaths, the researchers determined the actual figure should exceed $1.4 billion. The report is co-authored by Center Director Andrea Gielen along with leaders from six other Injury Centers. “Despite the meager support provided, Injury Centers have made substantial progress and discoveries over the past two decades, demonstrating their continuing potential to advance the science and practice of injury control,” said Dr. Gielen. “As evidenced in this paper, what’s urgently needed is increased investment to accelerate these discoveries and ensure our results impact communities.” The article also includes select examples of research contributions by the ICRC program and presents four critical “Call to Actions” for Congress and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These include: Cultivate investigator interest in injury control and further development of cutting-edge research through increased funding; Support training in the science of injury control; Launch a comprehensive national campaign to foster public support for eradication of injury as a health problem; and Support a comprehensive, multi-agency review to determine how best to fund basic, applied, and translational injury research. The Lethality Assessment Program (LAP), a program developed by Center faculty members Daniel Webster and Jacquelyn Campbell along with law enforcement officials and members of social service agencies, has been selected as a semifinalist to receive the Mary Byron Project's Celebrating Solutions Award. The purpose of the LAP is to help first responders determine if domestic violence cases are at high risk for lethality and link them to community programs. As a semifinalist the program is in the top 20 of about 250 applications. Award winners ate expected to be announced in the fall. Drs. Campbell and Webster also conducted the research that led to the program’s development. They found that only four percent of women killed by their abusers had ever received domestic violence program services, and that the risk of re-assault of women assessed to be in high danger was reduced by 60% if they went to a shelter. Dr. Webster is now evaluating the program’s impact on domestic violence in Maryland with Dr. Katherine Vittes, a research associate with the School’s Department of Health Policy and Management. The Mary Byron Foundation is a public grant-making charity based in Louisville, Kentucky that honors groundbreaking efforts to stop domestic violence. The Foundation's Celebrating Solutions Award recognizes institutions that demonstrate an innovative approach to confronting the root causes of domestic violence and developing solutions to break the cycle. The Foundation is named in honor of a woman who was murdered by a former boyfriend in 1993. More information on the Foundation can be accessed here. Keshia Pollack, MPH, PhD, assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, delivered a presentation on the relationship between injury prevention and obesity in young children during the June meeting of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Committee on Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children. The committee is tasked with reviewing factors related to overweight and obesity in infants and young children, identifying gaps in knowledge, and making recommendations on early childhood obesity prevention policies. The purpose of the talk was to describe how injury relates to obesity risk, and make the case for why the Committee should consider injury prevention in addressing childhood obesity. “Injury researchers and obesity researchers share the common goal of keeping people active and safe,” said Dr. Pollack. “While this approach of the two fields working together is somewhat new, we are fortunate to already have successful examples to learn from and model, such as the Safe Routes to Schools program which has been effective at getting more children to safely walk and bicycle to school.” In closing, Dr. Pollack thanked the IOM committee for recognizing the opportunities for partnership between the two fields. “I look forward to continued collaborations with colleagues working to prevent and control childhood obesity. Together we can keep kids healthy and safe.” More information on the IOM Committee can be accessed here. Center faculty member David Jernigan contributed to efforts to secure the World Health Assembly’s recent adoption of a global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. As a result, health ministers from around the world will now try to curb binge drinking and other growing forms of excessive alcohol use through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and tighter marketing regulations. Dr. Jernigan is on the Board of the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance, the principal global NGO that has been advocating for the strategy. He has also assisted in developing the evidence base for the strategy, dating back to the late 1990s when he was the principal author of WHO's first Global Status Report on Alcohol. In his addition to his role with the Johns Hopkins Injury Center, Jernigan is director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To access the global strategy document, please click here. Ellen MacKenzie, PhD, the Fred and Julie Soper Professor and Chair of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, was named a recipient of the 2010 Diversity Recognition Award by the Johns Hopkins Diversity Leadership Council. The award celebrates individuals and groups who have made significant contributions in advancing and celebrating diversity and inclusiveness within the University. Nominated by the Bloomberg School’s Dean, Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, MacKenzie was awarded for her efforts to ensure and promote diversity within the department of Health Policy and Management and for serving as a role model to women faculty, staff and students. The award was presented at a ceremony and reception on May 18 in the Shriver Hall Auditorium. “The steps taken by the Diversity Leadership Council to promote diversity have been tremendous and beneficial to all University faculty, staff and students,” said MacKenzie. “It is an honor to be named a 2010 recipient of the Diversity Recognition Award and I am grateful to my many colleagues at the Bloomberg School who have supported me throughout my career and continue to assist me in celebrating and promoting diversity.” Susan P. Baker, M.P.H., Sc.D. (Hon.), has been named the recipient of the 2010 Harry G. Moseley Award for her pioneering work applying the public health model to aviation safety research and training. Established in recognition of the contributions of Col. Harry G. Moseley to flight safety and sponsored by Lockheed Martin, the award was presented to Professor Baker during the Aerospace Medical Association’s 81st Annual Scientific Meeting on May 13th in Phoenix, AZ. Prof. Baker’s research has led to a better understanding of the determinants of occupant survival in aviation crashes, the etiology of pilot error, and the relationship between pilot aging and safety performance. Her research has included crashes related to mountain flying, instructional flights, commuter flights, and air medical transport. Much of her teaching and research is designed to influence the legislators, administrators, media representatives, and others whose decisions can determine the likelihood of injury for thousands of people. “More than one thousand patients are admitted to U.S. hospitals with aviation-related injuries annually and 750 aviation related deaths occur each year, making aviation injuries a public health problem worthy of investigation,” said Professor Baker. “I want to extend my sincere gratitude to the Aerospace Medical Association for their recognition of the importance of applying a public health model to studying aviation safety research and training.” More information on the Aerospace Medical Association can be found here. Center faculty member David Bishai, MD, PHD, is the author of a new study on burn and fire injuries published in the May/June issue of Public Health Reports. Bishai and colleague Sunmin Lee looked at the impact of age by race/ethnicity to identify disparities in burn and fire injuries from age 1 to 90, and found that compared with non-Hispanic white people, Native Americans and African Americans older than 55 years of age experienced a higher risk of death from fires and burns. The rate ratio of burn/fire deaths of African Americans compared with white people was 3.14 for those aged 55 years and older. The corresponding rate ratio for Native Americans compared with white people was 1.93 for those aged 55 years and older. “Heightened fire risks for minority seniors require broad attention and the development of effective interventions,” said Bishai, an associate professor with the Injury Center. “Additionally, further investigation is needed to unveil the causes of the higher rates of burn and fire deaths faced by African American and Native American seniors.” To access graphs on trends in injury, including from fire, please click here.
Center faculty were well-represented among the presenters at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) held April 7-10 in Seattle, Washington. SBM is a multidisciplinary organization of clinicians, educators, and scientists dedicated to promoting the study of the interactions of behavior with biology and the environment, and the application of that knowledge to improve the health and well being of individuals, families, communities and populations. “Innovating Prevention From Research to Practice: The CARES Mobile Safety Center” (Eileen McDonald, Shannon Frattaroli, Wendy Shields, and Andrea Gielen) reported results of faculty’s work comparing the ability of the CARES mobile safety center to disseminate products and information at a medical practice versus community settings. The results indicate visitors to CARES report high levels of satisfaction: 98% said they would refer a friend. Qualitative and quantitative differences emerged across the two settings which the researchers will explore in greater detail. Faculty members Wendy Shields, Eileen McDonald and Andrea Gielen also presented research on a health literacy study. “Physician Communication With Parents At Risk for Low Literacy” explores the use of difficult terms and concepts as part of well childcare in an urban pediatric clinic. They found that in 55% of visits, physicians used words and concepts deemed difficult for low literacy populations, and in the majority (77%) of these instances, the phrase or concept was used without further explanation. And finally, in “What Happens After IPV Screening? Opportunities for Health Care Provider Intervention with Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence,” faculty Center Director Andrea Gielen along with Pate Mahoney, doctoral candidate Samantha Illangasekare and colleagues from George Washington University and University of Pittsburgh, reported the results of a pilot study testing a stage based counseling program’s utility for meeting the needs of women experiencing IPV. The study’s results were promising in terms of improving women’s reported quality of life and experience of violence. The next annual meeting of SBM will take place in Washington, DC. For more information, please click here: http://www.sbm.org/meetings/
On April 14th, Center Director Andrea Gielen addressed University of North Carolina students, faculty and staff during the annual Patricia F. Waller lecture, held in memory of Patricia Fossum Waller, PhD, a UNC professor who worked for nearly two decades as a researcher at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center, where she developed the concept for graduated licensing that would become adopted nationwide. The lectureship is sponsored by UNC’s Injury Prevention Research Center, the Highway Safety Research Center, and the Department of Psychology. Dr. Gielen’s talk, “Pediatric Injury Prevention: From the Trenches to the Ivory Tower and Back Again,” provided an overview of the epidemiology of childhood injury in the U.S., along with a short history of research accomplishments in the field. She provided examples of community partnered and translation research projects carried out by the Center, with a special emphasis on what the Center is doing to address childhood injuries in Baltimore. The video of Dr. Gielen’s presentation along with a copy of her slides can be found here. Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health today announced that it will award the highest prize in public health – the Frank A. Calderone Prize – to Susan P. Baker, whose extraordinary career spanning close to five decades has been instrumental in bringing the prevention of injuries to the forefront of public health and public policy. The Frank A. Calderone Prize in Public Health, the preeminent award in the field, is overseen by the Mailman School of Public Health and presented to an individual who has made a transformational contribution in the field of public health. The Prize recognizes an individual who has accomplished extraordinary distinction in public health and/or who has made a specific contribution which has had long-term national or global implications. This is the first time the Prize has been bestowed upon an injury control researcher. "Sue Baker is a true pioneer," said Mailman School Dean Fried. "She not only created a new field of academic inquiry in public health; she ensured that her research would have practical application and underpin a transformation in public policy. The Mailman School is proud to bestow the Calderone Prize on Professor Baker." "I am truly honored by this extraordinary recognition," said Professor Baker. "When I started in this field many years ago, injury was hardly considered a public health issue, despite being one of the leading causes of death and disability. I feel very fortunate to have had so many opportunities to build a career in injury prevention, to train so many outstanding injury professionals, and to have been able to influence real policy changes to save lives. While we have collectively come so far, there is more work to be done. That is why I hope this Prize will now draw even more attention to the burden of injury, and encourage more young leaders to enter the field." Professor Baker will accept the Calderone Prize on May 6, 2010 and give a major and original address at the Mailman School. To access the complete press release, please click here. Keshia Pollack, MPH, PhD, an assistant professor with the Center for Injury Research and Policy, is a recipient of a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2010 Innovation Fund award, sponsored by the Department of Health Policy and Management. Dr. Pollack’s proposed research will examine how policymakers perceive health impact assessments (HIAs), how and if HIAs are used by policymakers, and the best ways to disseminate HIA findings to policymakers so they are included in the policymaking process. The use of HIAs is gaining momentum within the U.S. public health community as a powerful instrument with the potential to inform health planning and policymaking, however little research exists on policymaker’s perceptions towards HIAs, or the best ways to disseminate HIA findings to policymakers. “In order for public health outcomes to play a greater role in policymaker’s decisions, more research is needed to determine policymaker’s perspectives on HIA’s,” said Pollack. “I want to extend my sincere gratitude to the Department for recognizing this as an area worthy of study, and I look forward to commencing my work.” For more information on the Faculty Innovation Fund, please click here. Translating knowledge from research findings into practice and policy is critical to reducing the injury burden, and researchers are well-positioned for this challenge, according to the new From SAVIR column published in Injury Prevention. This article is authored by faculty and staff at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and is available at the journal’s Website. The article makes the case for the value in injury researchers and policymakers working together, and cites two examples of how the Hopkins Injury Center effectively reduced the chasm that often exists between researchers and policymakers. One example, Preventing Injuries in Maryland: A Resource for State Policy Makers, was developed in advance of the 2010 Maryland General Assembly and offers policy makers and stakeholders easily accessible and understandable information on specific injury problems in Maryland. Evidence-based policy solutions for each injury problem included in the Resource are also provided. “Policymakers want to know what solutions exist for public health problems. As researchers, we can address this need and connect policy makers with those evidence-based policy solutions proven to prevent injury,” said lead study author Keshia Pollack, an assistant professor with the Injury Center. “As we become more engaged and involved in translating our work for policy makers, we need to remain mindful of the importance of sharing these experiences with each other. By doing so, we can expand the knowledge base necessary to accelerate the dissemination and uptake of proven effective injury countermeasures.” To learn more about what SAVIR is doing to disseminate best knowledge translation practices, please email the SAVIR Advocacy committee New research from Center Professor Susan P. Baker finds that the risk of dying from injuries is increasing for Americans ages 65 and older. The report found significant increases in death rates from falls (42 percent increase), machinery (46 percent increase), motorcycle crashes (145 percent increase) and unintentional poisoning (34 percent increase). The results are published in the February issue of Injury Prevention and are available online at the journal’s website. “Our findings reveal significant increases in death rates from several different injury causes,” said Professor Baker. “While the overall change in injury mortality among persons 65 and older was small, this study identifies important causes worthy of further investigation.” To access the complete press release, please click here.
Along with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Dr. Ellen MacKenzie, professor with the Center and the Fred and Julie Soper Professor and Chair of the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management, has been awarded $18.4 million by the Orthopaedic Extremity Trauma Research Program (OETRP) of the U.S. Department of Defense to establish an Extremity Trauma Clinical Research Consortium. Termed METRC, the Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium consists of a network of clinical centers and one data-coordinating center (housed in the Injury Center) that will work together with the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) to conduct multi-center clinical research relevant to the treatment and outcomes of orthopaedic trauma sustained in the military. The overall goal of the Consortium is to produce the evidence needed to establish treatment guidelines for the optimal care of the wounded warrior and ultimately improve the clinical, functional and quality of life outcomes of both service members and civilians who sustain high energy trauma to the extremities. “The need for such a consortium is evident,” said Dr. MacKenzie. “Eighty-two percent of all service members injured in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom sustain extremity trauma. Many sustain injuries to multiple limbs. The research to be conducted by the Consortium will help us better understand what works and what doesn’t in treating these injuries and ensure that our service members are provided with the best care possible.” For more information on METRC, please see their website at metric.org. Beginning on March 1, Baltimore City will require carbon monoxide (CO) detectors to be installed in residential dwellings, hotels and buildings used for living or sleeping. Today, the Center joined officials from the Baltimore City Health and Fire officials to warn residents of the health dangers of CO poisoning, to share prevention tips and to urge compliance with the new law. Since 2000, more than 25 people have died in Baltimore City as a result of CO poisoning. “Like many injuries that occur in the home, CO poisoning can be prevented," said Eileen McDonald, MS, director of The Johns Hopkins Children’s Safety Centers. "By installing a CO alarm in the hallway near every separate sleeping area of their home, people can keep themselves safe.” To speed the conversion of city homes into safer residences, Kidde, a leading manufacturer of residential fire safety products, has donated 250 free CO alarms that will be distributed to City residents who demonstrate financial need. The devices will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis at Johns Hopkins Children’s Safety Center, located inside Children’s Admitting. The center is open Monday – Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; the phone number is (410) 614-5587.
A new study authored by Center faculty member Keshia Pollack reports that 66 percent of respondents to a Maryland telephone survey do not have advance medical directives. Younger adults and blacks were less likely than older adults and whites, respectively, to report having an advance directive, which includes the living will and health care power of attorney. The results will be published in an upcoming issue of Health Policy and are available online at the journal’s website “Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for young people in the U.S., scenarios in which an AD or health care proxy would be particularly beneficial,” said Dr. Pollack, an assistant professor with the Injury Center. The study found the primary reasons reported for not having an advance directive include being unfamiliar with them, feeling too healthy to need one, or, for the younger adults, being too young to need one. To access the complete press release, please click here.
Keshia Pollack, MPH, PhD, assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, was a featured speaker at One Less Car’s 13th Annual Smart Transportation and Bicycle Symposium, held February 3rd in Annapolis, MD. One Less Car is Maryland’s statewide advocacy voice for promoting safe and accessible biking, walking, transit and carpooling as alternatives to cars. Speaking in front of several hundred advocates, planners, state and local officials, and community leaders brought together by a common desire for more bike lanes, better sidewalks, more trails, and a statewide Complete Streets policy, Dr. Pollack discussed how the design and construction of our transportation systems have a profound impact on the public’s health. She described the inextricable link between transportation and health, highlighting pedestrian-related injuries, physical activity and obesity, and disparities, as well as stressed the importance of partnerships and collaborations to ensure transportation and public health are considered together. For more information on the Symposium, please click here.
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