Welcome to CIRCL

The Center for Injury Research & Control (CIRCL) is an interdisciplinary academic research program involving many schools and departments at the University of Pittsburgh. The center conducts and promotes injury control research, gathers and disseminates information on injuries, provides training for health professionals, and informs public and community leaders on injury control issues.

Mission

The mission of CIRCL is to understand injuries and reduce their occurrence, severity and consequences through development of multi-disciplinary research and educational and training activities.

CIRCL Breaking News

A study by CIRCL'S Director, Dr. Anthony Fabio will be highlighted by The American Journal of Public Health in their April 2009 journal issue.

Community-level racial segregation may be associated with increased violence injury

New study finds that higher levels of racial segregation are associated with increased odds of violent injury among Whites and non-Whites.

Researchers investigated whether within-county racial segregation was associated with increased odds of violent injury, beyond individual risk. They did so by analyzing data on 75,310 patients admitted with an injury to Pennsylvania hospitals from 1997 to 1998. Results were adjusted for individual and county-level risks. Researchers found the association was strongest for non-Whites.   

“Distinguishing the relative contributions of individual-level race, community-level racial segregation, and their interaction is crucial to understanding the underlying etiology of violence and to identifying effective interventions,” the study’s authors stated. “Through social influence operating at the individual and community levels, race may be a marker that signals varying degrees of access to social, economic, and political resources for individuals and the communities they inhabit; the availability of these resources in turn influences the risk of violence.”

[From: “The Association between County-Level Injury Rates and Racial Segregation Revisited: A Multilevel Analysis.” Contact: Anthony Fabio, Center for Injury Research and Control, Pittsburgh, Pa., fabioa@upmc.edu].

See http://www.ajph.org/first_look.shtml for abstract or full text.

CIRCL News

• Safety Madness: The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Injury Research and Control (CIRCL) and the Student Health Service Office of Health Education and Promotion (OHEP) have collaborated and developed an event in the form of a modified scavenger hunt to increase Pitt students’ awareness of safety and injury issues overall and specific to the Pitt campus.  Safety Madness will take place on Friday March 20th 2009 from 12-4pm. The event is open to all Pitt students and offers a chance to win one of two signed Pitt basketballs, first, second, or third place prizes, and all participants will receive a free t-shirt. 

  We believe that Safety Madness is a very important event since unintentional injury, homicide, and suicide are the top three leading causes of death in people aged 18-22 in the United States.  Additionally, in the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment administered to Pitt students in the spring of 2007, only 10.3% of Pitt student’s reported receiving information on injury prevention and safety from their college or university. 

  Contact CIRCL at circl@pitt.edu for more information.

• Dr. Anthony Fabio was quoted in an article on the front of the Post Gazette on Sunday, February 15, 2009. Trends emerge when mapping out county's murders.

• Dr. Anthony Fabio has published the following article in Injury Prevention: Cohort differences in the progression of developmental pathways: evidence for period effects on secular trends of violence in males.

• At the 2008 APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego, CA on October 25, Dr. Anthony Fabio gave the following presentation: Enduring Influence of Neighborhood Disadvantage on the Shape of the Age-Crime Curve and Dr. Thomas Songer presented: Injuries from Falls among Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI).
• On October 25, 2008, Dr. Patrick Kochanek was one of the two opening speakers at the Annual Congress of the European Academy of Pediatrics in Nice, France.  His presentation to more than 4,000 attendees of the conference highlighted CIRCL-funded work on biomarkers and brain injury.  He discussed the potential use of these tools in both pediatric neurointensive care and child abuse detection.

CIRCL Webinars

For more information on any of the below webinars and instructions on how to join, please visit our Webinars page.

• Henry A. Spiller, MS, DABAT, DABFE presents
  It's Not Your Grandma's Data Anymore
  Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm (ET)
  

Injury Research Related News

• Study Finds Broad Access to Parenting Support Lowers Risk of Child Maltreatment - January 26, 2009 

• CDC and National Expert Panel Promote Revised Field Triage Guidelines of Trauma Patients - January 22, 2009