Last Call: decreasing drunk driving among 21-34-year-old bar patrons

Any effort to decrease the toll of drunk driving must include efforts directed at people who drink in bars, particularly young adults who use motor vehicles after drinking. We designed a multifaceted social marketing campaign, Last Call, to increase the use of designated drivers and safe rides homes among 21-34-year olds. There were three components to the intervention: (1) use of taxi stands to promote taxi use; (2) point-of-sale information to patrons at partner bars and (3) a mass media campaign to support the designated driver/safe ride home message. Among the heaviest drinkers, the programme significantly increased the use of designated drivers and increased the use of taxis by 63%.     

Prevention of death and disability from injuries to children and adolescents

One million children and adolescents die each year from injuries and many-fold more suffer long-term disability. While there have been substantial reductions in injury mortality over the last 50 years, further decreases in morbidity and mortality will require consideration of additional factors. This article discusses five different components to further reduce the injury burden: consideration of the epidemiologic transition occurring in both high-income as well as low- and middle-income countries; expanding the concept of injury prevention to that of injury control, with substantial emphasis on acute care and rehabilitation of the injured child; inclusion of adolescents in paediatric injury control; improving the quality of research conducted; and changing the way priorities are determined in the injury field.     

The community impact of school-shootings on stress-related emergency department visits

School-shootings can enormously impact U.S. gun policy, but very little is known about the community mental health impact of school-shootings. We used difference-in-differences and event study analyses to compare stress-related ED visits in zip-codes within 5 miles (exposed) and in zip-codes 10–15 miles from (control) school-shootings before and after school-shootings using data from California, 2005–2011. School-shootings and fatal school-shootings were associated with annual increases of 0.7 and 1.5 stress-related ED visits per 1000 people, increases of 7% and 14%, respectively, compared to pre-shooting utilization. These previously unmeasured costs of school-shootings reinforce calls to prevent gun violence, especially in schools.