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Department of Preventive Care (DPC)  Key Publications

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

Several key publications follow:

When children have injuries, how well do their parents remember the incidents? In this study, telephone interviews were completed with a parent of more than 1,600 young children who had computerized medical data for at least one injury in the last year. Recall decreased with time. It was best for major injuries; intermediate for minor injuries treated in a hospital, emergency department, or urgent care center; and worst for minor injuries treated in a clinic.

—Cummings P, Rivara FP, Thompson RS, Reid RJ (2005). Ability of parents to recall the injuries of their young children. Injury Prevention, 11 (1): 43–47.

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The presence of a household firearm is associated with an increased risk of suicide among adults and adolescents. Although many advocate locking firearms and ammunition to keep them from youth, these practices had not previously been shown to prevent access to guns by youth. This study found that keeping a firearm locked and unloaded, and storing ammunition in a locked and separate location, can lower the risk of unintentional injuries and suicide among youth.

—Grossman DC, Mueller BA, Riedy C, Dowd MD, Villaveces A, Prodzinski J, Nakagawara J, Howard J, Thiersch N, Harruff R (2005). Gun storage practices and risk of youth suicide and unintentional firearm injuries. Journal of the American Medical Association, 293 (6): 707–714.

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Safe storage of firearms has been recommended to prevent gun-related injuries to children, but few interventions have improved storage practices. This study examined a multifaceted community education campaign to promote safe handgun storage. The campaign, begun in 1997 in King County, Washington, did not change safe-storage practices significantly in households with handguns and children, when compared to control counties. Even if the campaign slightly improved safe firearm storage, simultaneous state and national gun-safety activities or legislative efforts may have spotlighted gun-related issues in the control counties.

—Sidman EA, Grossman DC, Koepsell TD, D'Ambrosio L, Britt J, Simpson ES, Rivara FP, Bergman AB (2005). Evaluation of a community-based handgun safe-storage campaign. Pediatrics, 115 (6): 654–661.

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The pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine recommended for all adults 65 years and older is effective in preventing pneumococcal bacteremia, or bloodstream infections. However, it does not prevent pneumonia caused by this same bacterium, which is much more common than bacteremia. Pneumococcal pneumonia is responsible for as many as 300,000 hospitalizations each year among U.S. seniors.

—Jackson LA, Neuzil KM, Yu O, Benson P, Barlow WE, Adams AL, Hanson CA, Mahoney LD, Shay DK, Thompson WW (2003). Effectiveness of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine in older adults. New England Journal of Medicine, 348 (18): 1747–1755.

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Women with a history of domestic violence that is documented on their medical records use more health care and incur more costs across all levels of care and types of diagnoses. Their rate of visits was 1.6 times higher than that of women who were seen for the same reasons (injury, chronic pelvic pain, depression, or physical examination) but had no history of domestic violence—and 2.3 times higher than all women enrolled at Group Health.

—Ulrich YC, Cain KC, Sugg NK, Rivara F, Rubanowice DM, Thompson RS (2003). Medical care utilization patterns in women with diagnosed domestic violence. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 24 (1): 9–15.

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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