Societal determinants of violent death: The extent to which social, economic, and structural characteristics explain differences in violence across Australia, Canada, and the United States.

In this ecological study, we attempt to quantify the extent to which differences in homicide and suicide death rates between three countries, and among states/provinces within those countries, may be explained by differences in their social, economic, and structural characteristics. We examine the relationship between state/province level measures of societal risk factors and state/province level rates of violent death (homicide and suicide) across Australia, Canada, and the United States. Census and mortality data from each of these three countries were used. Rates of societal level characteristics were assessed and included residential instability, self-employment, income inequality, gender economic inequity, economic stress, alcohol outlet density, and employment opportunities). Residential instability, self-employment, and income inequality were associated with rates of both homicide and suicide and gender economic inequity was associated with rates of suicide only. This study opens lines of inquiry around what contributes to the overall burden of violence-related injuries in societies and provides preliminary findings on potential societal characteristics that are associated with differences in injury and violence rates across populations.

Prevalence of Parent-Reported Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Associated Health Conditions.

Importance: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children results in a high number of emergency department visits and risk for long-term adverse effects. Objectives: To estimate lifetime prevalence of TBI in a nationally representative sample of US children and describe the association between TBI and other childhood health conditions. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were analyzed from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health, a cross-sectional telephone survey of US households with a response rate of 23%. Traumatic brain injury prevalence estimates were stratified by sociodemographic characteristics. The likelihood of reporting specific health conditions was compared between children with and without TBI. Age-adjusted prevalence estimates were computed for each state. Associations between TBI prevalence, insurance type, and parent rating of insurance adequacy were examined. Data analysis was conducted from February 1, 2016, through November 1, 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: Lifetime estimate of TBI in children, associated childhood health conditions, and parent report of health insurance type and adequacy. Results: The lifetime estimate of parent-reported TBI among children was 2.5% (95% CI, 2.3%-2.7%), representing over 1.8 million children nationally. Children with a lifetime history of TBI were more likely to have a variety of health conditions compared with those without a TBI history. Those with the highest prevalence included learning disorders (21.4%; 95% CI, 18.1%-25.2%); attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (20.5%; 95% CI, 17.4%-24.0%); speech/language problems (18.6%; 95% CI, 15.8%-21.7%); developmental delay (15.3%; 95% CI, 12.9%-18.1%); bone, joint, or muscle problems (14.2%; 95% CI, 11.6%-17.2%); and anxiety problems (13.2%; 95% CI, 11.0%-16.0%). States with a higher prevalence of childhood TBI were more likely to have a higher proportion of children with private health insurance and higher parent report of adequate insurance. Examples of states with higher prevalence of TBI and higher proportion of private insurance included Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Washington, Montana, Wyoming North Dakota, South Dakota, and Colorado. Conclusions and Relevance: A large number of US children have experienced a TBI during childhood. Higher TBI prevalence in states with greater levels of private insurance and insurance adequacy may suggest an underrecognition of TBI among children with less access to care. For more comprehensive monitoring, health care professionals should be aware of the increased risk of associated health conditions among children with TBI.

Development of a Comprehensive and Interactive Tool to Inform State Violence and Injury Prevention Plans.

CONTEXT: The Center of Disease Control and Prevention's Core State Violence and Injury Prevention Program (Core SVIPP) provides an opportunity for states to engage with their partners to implement, evaluate, and disseminate strategies that lead to the reduction and prevention of injury and violence. Core SVIPP requires awardees to develop or update their state injury and violence plans. Currently, literature informing state planning efforts is limited, especially regarding materials related to injury and violence. Presumably, plans that are higher quality result in having a greater impact on preventing injury and violence, and literature to improve quality would benefit prevention programming. OBJECTIVE: (1) To create a comprehensive injury-specific index to aid in the development and revision of state injury and violence prevention plans, and (2) to assess the reliability and utility of this index. DESIGN: Through an iterative development process, a workgroup of subject matter experts created the Violence and Injury Prevention: Comprehensive Index Tool (VIP:CIT). The tool was pilot tested on 3 state injury and violence prevention plans and assessed for initial usability. Following revisions to the tool (ie, a rubric was developed to further delineate consistent criteria for rating; items were added and clarified), the same state plans were reassessed to test interrater reliability and tool utility. RESULTS: For the second assessment, reliability of the VIP:CIT improved, indicating that the rubric was a useful addition. Qualitative feedback from states suggested that the tool significantly helped guide plan development and communicate about planning processes. CONCLUSION: The final VIP:CIT is a tool that can help increase plan quality, decrease the research-to-practice gap, and increase connectivity to emerging public health paradigms. The tool provides an example of tailoring guidance materials to reflect academic literature, and it can be easily adapted to other topic areas to promote quality of strategic plans for numerous outcomes.

Suicide Trends Among and Within Urbanization Levels by Sex, Race/Ethnicity, Age Group, and Mechanism of Death - United States, 2001-2015.

PROBLEM/CONDITION: Suicide is a public health problem and one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States. Substantial geographic variations in suicide rates exist, with suicides in rural areas occurring at much higher rates than those occurring in more urban areas. Understanding demographic trends and mechanisms of death among and within urbanization levels is important to developing and targeting future prevention efforts. REPORTING PERIOD: 2001-2015. DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM: Mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) include demographic, geographic, and cause of death information derived from death certificates filed in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. NVSS was used to identify suicide deaths, defined by International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) underlying cause of death codes X60-X84, Y87.0, and U03. This report examines annual county level trends in suicide rates during 2001-2015 among and within urbanization levels by select demographics and mechanisms of death. Counties were collapsed into three urbanization levels using the 2006 National Center for Health Statistics classification scheme. RESULTS: Suicide rates increased across the three urbanization levels, with higher rates in nonmetropolitan/rural counties than in medium/small or large metropolitan counties. Each urbanization level experienced substantial annual rate changes at different times during the study period. Across urbanization levels, suicide rates were consistently highest for men and non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives compared with rates for women and other racial/ethnic groups; however, rates were highest for non-Hispanic whites in more metropolitan counties. Trends indicate that suicide rates for non-Hispanic blacks were lowest in nonmetropolitan/rural counties and highest in more urban counties. Increases in suicide rates occurred for all age groups across urbanization levels, with the highest rates for persons aged 35-64 years. For mechanism of death, greater increases in rates of suicide by firearms and hanging/suffocation occurred across all urbanization levels; rates of suicide by firearms in nonmetropolitan/rural counties were almost two times that of rates in larger metropolitan counties. INTERPRETATION: Suicide rates in nonmetropolitan/rural counties are consistently higher than suicide rates in metropolitan counties. These trends also are observed by sex, race/ethnicity, age group, and mechanism of death. PUBLIC HEALTH ACTION: Interventions to prevent suicides should be ongoing, particularly in rural areas. Comprehensive suicide prevention efforts might include leveraging protective factors and providing innovative prevention strategies that increase access to health care and mental health care in rural communities. In addition, distribution of socioeconomic factors varies in different communities and needs to be better understood in the context of suicide prevention.