Health equity in injury and violence prevention

Achieving health equity requires societal efforts to address historical and contemporary injustices, barriers to health and healthcare, and preventable health disparities.

Injury Center Health Equity Goals

goal 1

Establish and strengthen internal mechanisms to implement and evaluate how health equity is incorporated into the injury center’s work

goal 2

Prioritize health equity as part of injury center funding opportunities

goal 3

Build and disseminate a broad evidence-base to advance health equity

goal 4

Develop and strengthen mutual partnerships to achieve health equity

Health equity in injury center work

• Injury prevention in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
  
• Promoting health equity in response to drug overdose
  
  • Health disparities can contribute to overdose deaths and other negative health outcomes, especially among groups that are marginalized. Evidence-based tools and resources and the implementation of targeted prevention strategies that address key drivers of health disparities can help stop the overdose epidemic.
• MMWR: Suicides among American Indians or Alaska Natives – National Violent Death Reporting System, United States, 2015–2020
  • Suicide disproportionately affects American Indian or Alaska Native individuals. Suicide prevention requires a culturally relevant comprehensive public health approach to address systemic and long-standing disparities among American Indian or Alaska Native peoples.
• Vital Signs: Changes in firearm homicide and suicide rates
  • Preventing firearm violence now and in the future requires a comprehensive prevention approach focused on reducing disparities. Strategies must address the underlying physical, social, economic, and structural conditions that are known to increase the risks of firearm homicide and suicide.
• Vital signs: Deaths due to drug overdose increase, inequalities increase
  • The growing crisis of drug abuse, particularly among people from racial and ethnic minority groups, requires special prevention and treatment efforts. Comprehensive, community-based prevention and response efforts must include proven, culturally responsive actions that address disparities in drug overdose deaths and the inequities that contribute to them.
    

publications

resources

• CDC’s Core Health Equity Science and Intervention Strategy
  • CDC Core Health Equity Science and Intervention Strategies Our work is designed to work collaboratively and hand-in-hand with multi-sector partners to transform our country at its core and strengthen our ability to keep our nation safe and healthy today and into the future.
• Health Equity Communication Resources
  • CDC Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication Emphasizes the importance of addressing all people inclusively and respectfully. These principles are intended to help public health professionals, particularly health communicators, within and outside CDC ensure communication products And strategies are adapted to the specific cultural, linguistic, environmental, and historical situation of each population or focus audience.
• Global Public Health Equity Guiding Principles for Communication
  • CDC Global Public Health Equity Guiding Principles for Communication Adds a global perspective to CDC’s health equity guiding principles for inclusive communications. This resource complements CDC’s global health equity strategy, which includes guiding principles for implementing health equity and promoting a sustained culture of equity and accountability.
• CDC Office of Health Equity
  • CDC Health Equity Office Advances health equity and women’s health issues across the country through CDC’s science and programs. The Health Equity Office also enhances CDC’s ability to leverage its diverse workforce and engage stakeholders to this end.

Expert Opinion: Dr. Tyler Evans, MD; Dr. Daskalakis, MD

This material matters because it shows how everyday circumstances such as where people live, work and move around the world shape injury risk and recovery, and it gives professionals a clear way to plan prevention efforts and keep track of what works. Public health agencies use the framework to prioritize funding for community-based violence prevention, practitioners consult it when developing safety consultation protocols, and researchers align their studies with identified determinants of disparity. People looking for a similar evidence-based approach can turn to resources such as the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Reports on Injury and Violence, and publications from organizations such as the American Public Health Association.
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Dr. Tyler B. Evans, MD, NS, MPH, DTM&H, FIDSA is an infectious disease and addiction medicine physician, national public health leader, and humanitarian.

Dr. Demetre C. Daskalakis, MD, MPH, is a physician and national health policy expert recognized for his expertise in infectious diseases, emergency response, and health equity.

It was originally published on the CDC website on May 16, 2024.

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