The International Program of The Center for Injury Research and Policy is a reflection of the center’s knowledge that injury-related death and disability are preventable events.  The goal of working at the international level to promote injury research is important given what is known about the burden of injury in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), injuries accounted for 9% of the world’s deaths and 12% of the burden of disease in 2000.  The burden of disease measure takes into account, not only mortality, but also disability resulting from injury.  Of the world’s deaths from injuries, 90% occur in low and middle-income countries.  WHO reports an expectation of a substantial increase in the injury-related burden of disease primarily because of road traffic injuries, interpersonal violence, war, and self-inflicted injuries.  The Center for Injury Research and Policy recognizes that its expertise can be utilized to impact injury control initiatives in the developing world. For this reason, CIRP has created the international program.

The National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study is currently the only nationally representative study of US high school sports-related injuries.  Certified athletic trainers from US high schools use an internet-based data collection tool, RIO™ (Reporting Information Online), to prospectively report athletic exposure and injury data for athletes participating in 18 sports (boys’ football, soccer, basketball, wrestling, baseball, ice hockey, lacrosse, swimming and diving, and track and field and girls’ soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball, gymnastics, field hockey, lacrosse, swimming and diving, and track and field).  By monitoring patterns of injury and identifying sport-specific risk and protective factors, the rate of high school sports-related injuries can be reduced through targeted, evidence-based interventions.

The Healthy Camp Study: An Illness and Injury Surveillance Project monitors illness and injury among campers and staff at US summer camps and identifies risk and protective factors associated with such adverse events. Long-term objectives of the five-year study are to monitor the annual results so that preventive interventions can be identified and integrated into the risk management programs. Using evidence-based science to establish camp health and safety practices can help camps decrease illnesses and injuries among both campers and staff.

To calculate national estimates of motor vehicle crash-related hospitalization and associated use of health care resources among patients 20 years and younger and to explore the effects of certain sociodemographic, health care system-related factors, and injury severity on use of hospital resources and lengths of stay in the United States.

The goal of this project was to develop and disseminate an innovative educational tool using the Precaution Adoption Process Model to guide parents toward correct and consistent booster seat use until their children can safely use an adult restraint system.

The goal for this project is to evaluate a theoretically-driven and innovative brief intervention for child safety delivered in the pediatric emergency department. The intervention addresses the use of child safety seats, working smoke alarms, and safely stored poisons.

Ladders are involved in many occupational and non-occupational activities. Falls from ladders can result in serious injury among people of all ages. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively examine nonfatal ladder-related injuries on a national level.

The objective of this project was to survey Ohio voters on their attitudes regarding ATV policies and safety.

The objective of this study was to shed light on the extent to which childhood obesity affects the types of appropriate child safety seats available for young children. This study was the first to estimate of the number of US children whose weight renders them unable to safely use the majority of child safety seats currently on the market.

The purpose of this project is to determine the effect of an interactive web-based learning module on acquisition of knowledge and adoption of desired clinical practice behaviors in pediatric residents in primary care training.

The major goal of this research is to determine whether a brief intervention, Project Carbon Monoxide Detector Education (Project CODE), will increase CO detector use.

Major goal: To study work-related injuries among foreign-born persons in the U.S. workforce.

Major goal: To study the impact of sleep disturbance and school work pressures on farm work-related injuries among middle school students in China.

Major goal: To increase training and research related to agricultural injuries in China in order to develop an infrastructure for future sustainable agricultural injury research in China.

Major goal: To develop and evaluate new evidence-based approaches to youth agricultural injury prevention.

In conjunction with the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Ohio Department of Health, and the Ohio Hospital association, CIRP has established the Ohio CODES (Crash Outcomes Data Evaluation System) Program. Using a sophisticated probablistic matching strategy, Ohio CODES links Ohio traffic crash record data with data from EMS, hospital and emergency department, and other statewide databases to assess the medical and financial outcomes of motor vehicle crashes. These data are used to identify prevention strategies and to inform highway safety planning and public policy decision-making. Visit the CODES section of our website for additional information.

In conjunction with the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Ohio Department of Health, and the Ohio Hospital association, CIRP has established the Ohio CODES (Crash Outcomes Data Evaluation System) Program. Using a sophisticated probablistic matching strategy, Ohio CODES links Ohio traffic crash record data with data from EMS, hospital and emergency department, and other statewide databases to assess the medical and financial outcomes of motor vehicle crashes. These data are used to identify prevention strategies and to inform highway safety planning and public policy decision-making. Visit the CODES section of our website for additional information.

Major goal: To link automobile crash data, EMS incidence reporting data, trauma registry data, hospital discharge data, death certificate data, emergency department (ED) data, and driver’s license data in State of Ohio.

Major goal: To link automobile crash data, EMS incidence reporting data, trauma registry data, hospital discharge data, death certificate data, emergency department (ED) data, and driver’s license data in State of Ohio.

Major goal: To evaluate the effect of delay in advanced trauma care on trauma patients’ outcomes using linked data from Ohio CODES.

Major goal: To evaluate the effect of delay in advanced trauma care on trauma patients’ outcomes using linked data from Ohio CODES.

Major goal: To evaluate pre-hospital factors and their impact on outcomes of injured children using data from Ohio CODES project.

Major goal: To evaluate pre-hospital factors and their impact on outcomes of injured children using data from Ohio CODES project.

Developed by Dr. R. Dawn Comstock in 2004, the RIO™ (Reporting Information Online) surveillance system is an easily navigated online data collection tool that receives front line data in real time from study reporters (certified athletic trainers, coaches, nurses, etc.) nationwide.

The program is highly versatile as it can be tailored to collect high quality injury and illness data from a variety of activities.

Currently 40 to 50 million people live in the United States with a variety of disabilities and this number is expected to increase substantially in the coming years. Injury and safety research has recently emerged as an important new direction in promoting the health and wellness of individuals with disabilities, and there is now increased attention on safety research and injury prevention among this vulnerable population. Individuals with disabilities are believed to face a higher injury risk than their healthy counterparts due to deficiencies in gait/motor control, impairments in mental processing, and an inability to adjust to their environment. Although limited in number, previous studies on injuries among individuals with disabilities have indicated that individuals with disabilities are at significantly increased risk for unintentional injuries. Therefore, there is a critical need to better understand the factors that impact the occurrence of injuries among individuals with disabilities, to identify injury patterns, and to investigate the medical costs of these injuries. This research brief summarizes key findings from our previous studies, with an emphasis on children with disabilities. This document serves to highlight an important public health issue in the United States and encourage dialogue on the development of focused, coordinated strategies for safety research and injury prevention among individuals with disabilities.