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Deaths from car crashes plummeted in earlier decades because research demonstrated how to build safer cars and roads and documented the impact of policy. Research has documented the value of smoke alarms and home sprinklers, pool fencing, building designs that minimise fall risk and the efficacy of childproof packaging of medications. Research has revealed the burden of injuries and the cost-effectiveness of addressing injury prevention and helped maximise impact from different approaches. But support for injury research has not kept pace with our need and our potential to reduce the burden of injuries.
A recent study examined the relationship between the amount of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and the burden of disease for 27 leading causes of death and disability. Among all of these conditions, the spending compared with burden was most disparate for injuries.1 …
Footnotes
Contributors CPA and CR contributed equally to the development and preparation of this piece.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.