This research agenda presents priorities in topic-specific chapters. However, certain issues are relevant to multiple topics. The breadth of the Injury Center’s research and its place within the broader public health field offer tremendous opportunities for investigating these cross-cutting issues. Including priorities of this nature greatly enhances the applicability of the research results and increases the opportunities for independent and joint funding from multiple sponsors.

A. Evaluate the most effective methods for translating research findings into public health programs and policies.

Once researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of an intervention in a limited setting, they must consider a number of issues before bringing the intervention to a larger population. These issues share similar characteristics across a range of intentional and unintentional injuries and even other public health problems. For example, research should investigate how to increase organizational and community capacity for tailoring, implementing, and sustaining effective interventions. Solutions might involve knowledge of sociocultural and environmental influences on behavior, organizational leadership and infrastructure, community engagement, and coalition building. Dissemination and communication research to learn how to encourage practitioners and policy makers to adopt science-based programs and enforce policies, laws, and regulations that reduce intentional and unintentional injuries will have a broad impact.

B. Evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to improve parenting skills and reduce risky use of alcohol.

Among the modifiable risk factors that affect many types of injury, parenting and risky alcohol use may be two of the most prominent. Parenting interventions are effective in reducing and preventing child maltreatment. Increasingly, evidence suggests that parenting interventions may also affect the risk of other types of violence, including intimate partner violence, youth violence, and suicide.

The effectiveness of various modes of parenting in preventing unintentional injuries is not understood as well as in the case of child maltreatment. Parenting appears to influence health behaviors such as risk taking by teen drivers. In addition, parenting programs designed to prevent child maltreatment have demonstrated a simultaneous reduction of home hazards.

Excessive alcohol intake and alcohol dependence increase the risk of a variety of injuries and medical conditions. Primary prevention strategies to reduce youth access to alcohol are particularly important because individuals who begin drinking alcohol as teens and adolescents are at greater risk for alcohol abuse and dependence in adulthood. Although researchers and practitioners have identified some effective strategies, more research is needed to better understand which factors and policies have the strongest influence on youth alcohol use.

Secondary prevention strategies for alcohol use and abuse often involve screening medical patients for alcohol problems when they present for care. Screening and brief counseling interventions have shown promising results for emergency department and trauma patients. However, before these clinical preventive services can be broadly disseminated, further research is needed to demonstrate effectiveness in multiple settings, refine procedures, and increase efficiency. Legislative and community-based behavioral interventions that address alcohol and effectively reduce transportation injuries may also reduce violence, falls, and drowning or require minor modifications to do so. The entire field of public health, including injury prevention, can benefit from a better understanding of the barriers and solutions to wider adoption of alcohol interventions that reduce injuries

C. Identify the costs and consequences of injury.

Information about the costs and consequences of injury is crucial so that employers, government leaders, and the public can accurately gauge the impact of injury relative to other issues they face. Long-term physical, psychological, and economic consequences of injuries for all affected groups—injured persons, their families and employers, and society—require better delineation. Epidemiologic and economic research can augment the information currently available and can be used to prioritize prevention and control activities. Standardizing methods to estimate costs is essential to facilitate useful cost-effectiveness research and to stimulate investments in injury prevention and control by both public and private sectors.

D. Build the research infrastructure.

Reducing the burden of injury requires ongoing investment in the injury research infrastructure. An entire field of injury control research has evolved over the last two decades. For injury research to move to the next level of maturity, an integrated network of researchers, mentors, and students must exist. Individual research grants alone are insufficient to continue this progress. There is a need to introduce students to injury research both in the classroom and through hands-on experience, to improve linkages between classroom and community learning, and to cultivate opportunities for new and experienced researchers as well as community practitioners to exchange ideas and develop a greater appreciation of the depth and breadth of the field of injury research. Many activities can serve these goals: training programs; programs linking researchers with practitioners; conferences; effective use of information technology, including data clearinghouses; injury research centers; and interdisciplinary collaborations. The injury research field can also benefit from integration with the public health research community that addresses issues other than injury. Such integration can include training, participating in longitudinal studies or other large-scale research projects, and developing research methods that extend beyond injury.

This page last reviewed September 07, 2006.

Privacy Notice - Accessibility

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control