Research on injury prevention: time for an international agenda?

OBJECTIVE To propose an initial agenda for a systematic international research strategy designed to meet the information needs of injury prevention worldwide. CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION OF ARTICLES The world literature since 1977 was surveyed to obtain an overview of the current research effort on injury epidemiology and prevention. Articles were cited to illustrate the breadth and nature of work published on the topic with special reference to the prevention of home and traffic injuries. CONCLUSIONS There has been a recent upsurge of interest in injury prevention, although much of the work has been descriptive rather than analytical or evaluative. The implementation of existing knowledge has been patchy. To meet the information needs of effective injury prevention, several elements of an international research agenda are proposed. These include: the achievement of a consensus on terminology, definition, and classification; clarification of the roles of social deprivation, gender, risk taking behaviour, personality, stress, alcohol, drugs, chronic illness, and disability in the aetiology of injury; the development of multi-agency models of good injury prevention practice; the evaluation of counter-measures; the development and evaluation of routine injury surveillance systems.