For working parents, having grandparents as caregivers can cut the risk of childhood injury roughly in half, according to a new study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Compared to organized daycare, or care by the mother or other relatives, having a grandmother watch a child was associated with a decreased risk of injury for the child. The study is among the first to examine the relationship between grandparents’ care and childhood injury rates. The results are published in the November 2008 issue of Pediatrics. In addition to source of caregiving, researchers examined the connections between family structure and the likelihood of injury. According to the researchers, the odds of injury were significantly greater among children whose parents never married compared with children whose mothers stayed married throughout the child’s life. Similarly, odds of injury were greater for children living in homes in which the father did not co-reside. These associations were independent of family income. Read More>>> The rate of suicide in the United States has increased for the first time in a decade, according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy. The increase in the overall suicide rate between 1999 and 2005 was due primarily to an increase in suicides among whites aged 40-64, with white middle-age women experiencing the largest annual increase. Read More>>> Gun-related homicide among young men rose sharply in the United States in recent years even though the nation’s overall homicide rate remained flat, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Between 1999 and 2005, homicide involving firearms increased 31 percent among black men ages 25 to 44 and 12 percent among white men of the same age. The study is published in the Online First edition of the Journal of Urban Health. “The recent flatness of the U.S. homicide rate obscures the large increases in firearm death among males ages 25-44, especially black males,” said Susan Baker, MPH, co-author of the study and a professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Injury Research & Policy. Read More>>> U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin (both D-Md.) announced the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has received a $1 million Fire Prevention and Safety Grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to support research to help reduce the number of firefighter fatalities due to heart attacks. JHSPH is collaborating with the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) in this research effort. The project director, Keshia Pollack, faculty with the Department of Health Policy and Management at JHSPH, and her team will work with the NVFC to identify barriers that limit the implementation of wellness and fitness interventions among firefighters and fire departments in Maryland and Arizona. Read More>>> | 
