A public health approach to preventing injuries and violence: Q&A with Linda Degutis

As CDC's Injury Center celebrates its 20th anniversary, Linda Degutis, a former APHA president, reflects on the significant advances that have been made in the field of injury and violence prevention and her vision for meeting some of the challenges that lie ahead. Read more at http://www.publichealthnewswire.org/?p=2992

Q: What is the scope of injury and violence? Where does it rank in the context of other public health problems?

Past CDC director Dr. William Foege said, “Throughout history, the two major causes of early death have been infectious disease and injury.” Today, more people ages 1–44 die from injuries than from any other cause, including cancer, HIV or the flu. The toll of injury and violence is unacceptable. Those of us in the injury prevention and research field know that this is a public health issue we are making great strides in, but there are challenges ahead that we must work to address together. Here are a few examples:

We could have saved 3,688 more lives in 2009 if everyone had buckled up.

Sobriety checkpoints have been shown to cut alcohol-related crashes and deaths by about 20 percent.

Q: We commonly hear that injuries are not accidents. Can you give us some examples of what that means?

Those of us in the injury field know that the terms “accident,” “unavoidable” or “random act” are used too often to describe injuries and violence.

It’s not random when a teen consumes alcohol, drives after dark with too many passengers and crashes. It’s not an accident when a new parent is frazzled by a crying baby and shakes the child out of frustration. An elder person falling is often avoidable. We know what puts people at risk.

The field of injury prevention is providing scientific tools to reduce injuries and violence-related injuries. For example, graduated drivers licensing laws, positive parenting programs to help parents better understand and handle stresses, and balance strengthening programs like Tai Chi can help prevent falls among elders.

Q: How important is it for the center to build partnerships in the policy and research it develops?

We value our partners’ contributions to the field of injury and violence prevention. Together, we move proven science-based evidence and research from testing to practice. I believe that marrying science and partnerships does result in policies that provide demonstrable improvements in public health — at the federal, state and local levels and globally. The goal of our partner outreach is to create and maintain partnerships to support these strategies.

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