Do you have a work in progress that you’d like to share at the next APA meeting? The Injury Control SIG will meet again in Honolulu during the PAS meetings (May 2-6, 2008). Please contact one of the SIG chairs now if you have ideas or thoughts to share at our next meeting. Works in progress are typically presented with opportunities to solicit advice and assistance from colleagues in the SIG.

Highlight on new injury control finding or research methodology
Despite widespread use in practice and research since the 1980’s, the the Injury Prevention Program Safety Survey (TIPP-SS) of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has never be subject to tests of validity and reliability – until now. Mason and colleagues studied the TIPP-SS in a sample of low income urban families, with home safety audits providing reference data. They found that the survey had good reliability as a measure of the concept of injury prevention knowledge and practice. However, validity when compared to home audit of actual behaviors was very poor. The authors suggest that “TIPP-SS measures knowledge and attitudes rather than behavior, that is, parents are often aware of the desired behavior or condition and report those instead of actual conditions or behaviors.” These results suggest caution in using the TIPP-SS for clinical counseling and call for additional effort to develop a valid and reliable parent-reported home safety measure for research use.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 161:759-765, 2007.

New resources
The Journal of Trauma published a supplement in September 2007 highlighting work done around the US by investigators from the Injury Free Coalition for Kids. This program, now active at 43 trauma centers, reaches out using local data to target evidence-based or evaluated interventions designed to prevent common causes of injury in local neighborhoods. The reports illustrate the variety of injury mechanisms and approaches used. Most importantly, all of the projects were evaluated in some manner – some with negative results – and lessons about dissemination, generalizability and sustainability were highlighted.
J Trauma 63(3) (Supplement), September 2007.

Upcoming Meetings
ISCAIP Child Injury Prevention Meeting - 14 March 2008, Merida, Mexico. The International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention meeting, staged in conjunction with the 9th World Conference, has the theme "Child Injury Prevention-Knowledge into Practice: Putting the World Report on Child Injury into Action". A key focus of this meeting will be the lessons and findings of the WHO/UNICEF World Report and discussion on using this information to improve child injury prevention effort in all regions of the world. To receive further information about the meeting, send expressions of interest to: iscaip@hotmail.com.

9th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, Safety 2008 - March 15-18, 2008 in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. This conference will give special attention to the processes of globalization and their implications for injuries and violence. Conference website http://www.insp.mx/safety2008/.

Updated 11/1/07