About the Division of Injury Prevention

Our mission

Our mission is to prevent injuries by connecting data, science, and action to ensure everyone has a fair and just opportunity to achieve their highest level of health.

Priorities

We prioritize our activities and resource allocation to create immediate impact through data, science, and action.

1. Data: Improve the availability, timeliness, quality, and use of injury data to inform science and public health action.
2. Science: Grow data-driven evidence and strategies to advance injury prevention and catalyze action.
3. Action: Advance implementation of evidence-based programs, practices, and policies that prevent injuries.

Why it matters

Injuries and violence are urgent, related, and preventable public health challenges. They affect everyone, regardless of age, race, or economic status. In the first half of life, more Americans die from injuries and violence—such as motor vehicle crashes, suicide, or traumatic brain injury (TBI)—than from any other cause.

• Suicide is now the 2nd leading cause of death for this 1-44 age group, and numbers of suicides continue to rise.
• Drowning is the number one cause of death for children ages 1–4 and motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death for children ages 5-9.
• Falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries among adults ages 65 years and older.
• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading causes of death in the U.S. In 2020, almost 41,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. That is more than 110 people killed in crashes every day.
• People ages 75 years and older had the highest numbers and rates of TBI-related deaths. This age group accounts for 28% of TBI-related deaths.

Our work

We support the Injury Center's vision of everyone, everywhere, every day—safe and free from injuries and violence—by leading work to:

1. Prevent suicide, older adult falls, TBI, drowning, and transportation injuries.
2. Advance data analytics.
3. Research, evaluate, and implement real-world programs and policies to achieve measurable impact on injury prevention and control.
4. Strengthen partnerships with American Indian and Alaska native populations to support culturally appropriate injury and violence prevention strategies.
5. Work with state, local, tribal, academic, and other partners to decrease injury and violence-related morbidity and mortality and increase the sustainability of injury prevention programs and practices.
6. Build scientific understanding of the burden, cost, cause, and effectiveness of interventions.
7. Use cutting-edge methods to gather and translate data for use in research, and in program and policy planning across the Injury Center and among our partners.
8. Provide national, state, and local data on injury morbidity, mortality, economic costs, and risk and protective factors through WISQARS.