Injury and violence are the leading causes of death among young people between 1 and 44 years of age in the U.S. Unintentional injuries from motor vehicle crashes, falls, fires/burns, poisonings (primarily from prescription drug overdoses), and violence from homicides and suicides kill more young people each year than cancer, diabetes, heart disease and the flu.

This interest area will prepare you for jobs in a wide range of settings:

• academia
• local to international agencies
• non-profits
• industry

Students with a Master’s degree (MS or MPH) may go on to become a project coordinator, evaluator, or data manager and students earning PhDs may find careers as independent researchers or senior epidemiologists in a federal agency. To learn more about careers in injury and violence prevention, click here.

Students with the following topic interests are encouraged to explore this research interest area:

• unintentional injury and violence prevention
• occupational and environmental epidemiology
• intervention and translational research
• pharmacoepidemiology
• behavioral health
• rural acute care
• road traffic safety
• interpersonal violence
• older adult falls
• opioid overdose
• traumatic brain injury
• injury and trauma systems evaluation
• global injury
• sports injury
• self-harm and suicide
• adverse childhood experiences

Faculty members primarily working in this area

James Torner	Traumatic brain injury, injury and trauma systems evaluation, rural acute care,
Cara Hamann	Road safety, vulnerable road users (pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, teen drivers, older drivers), global injury prevention, child passenger safety
Jonathan Platt	Suicide and suicidal behaviors, alcohol and substance use, child and adolescent health
Carri Casteel	Workplace violence prevention, occupational safety, older adult falls prevention, epidemiology of prescription drug overdoses

Collaborating faculty

Rima Afifi	adolescent and youth, refugees, mental health, community-based participatory research, intervention development and evaluation
Sato Ashida	aging, disaster preparedness, evaluation
Natoshia Askelson	Health policy and behavior change, family and child health, health communication, evaluation
Mark Berg	Criminology, social psychology, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), interpersonal conflicts
Timothy Brown	Driving safety, in-vehicle systems, warning systems, medical considerations in driving, driver performance
Ryan Carnahan	Pharmacoepidemiology, aging
Joe Cavanaugh	Model selection, time series analysis, modeling diagnostics
Kari Harland	Teen driver crash prevention, family violence, work-related crashes
Chuck Jennissen	All-terrain vehicle injury prevention, pediatric emergency care
Anton Kruger	Embedded systems and data collection device development
Michele Lilienthal	Traumatic injuries, burns, emergency management and treatment
Dan McGehee	Driver attention and response, crash avoidance, automation, traumatology
Nick Mohr	Emergency department telemedicine, time-to-care
Edith Parker	Global public health, community-based participatory research, health equity, environmental health interventions
Audrey Saftlas	Intimate partner violence and interventions
Steve Spears	Travel behavior, physical activity, road safety, spatial analysis
Kristel Wetjen	Pediatric traumatic and unintentional injury prevention, child passenger safety, toy safety, bicycling safety
Armeda Wojciak	Trauma-informed practices, parent-child relationships, at-risk youth, social and education policy
Rachel Young	Social media, user-generated digital content, cyberbullying, bystander intervention, interventions
Xun Zhou	Spatial and spatio-temporal data mining, big data analytics, geographic information systems, motor vehicle crashes

Featured Courses

• EPID:4510 Injury and Violence Prevention
• CPH:4220 Global Road Safety
• EPID:6510 Injury Epidemiology

Learning Objectives

Students interested in injury epidemiology are preparing for a career in which they will:

• Apply concepts of injury control and prevention to identify and prioritize injury problems and quantify and prioritize risk and protective factors in communities and high-risk populations,
• Identify strategies to prevent injuries, and implement and evaluate injury prevention control measures and programs,
• Apply epidemiologic methods in injury research and use statistical applications to analyze and interpret data,
• Successfully compete for federal, state and foundation grants,
• Participate in advocacy efforts for injury prevention research, funding and programs
• Lead and manage large-scale etiologic, intervention, and translational research studies

Recommended Plan of Study for the Injury Epidemiology Research Interest Area PhD Elective Requirement

course #	course name	s.h.	semester(s) offered*
Students interested in injury epidemiology will take the following two courses:
EPID:4510	Injury and Violence Prevention	3 s.h.	Fall
EPID:6510	Injury Epidemiology	3 s.h.	Spring odd years *
In addition, students will choose at least 17 s.h. from the following recommended courses or courses approved by faculty in the Injury Epidemiology program. Students should select courses in consultation with their advisor to reflect their research interest area (e.g. unintentional injury and violence prevention, occupational and environmental epidemiology, program/intervention development and evaluation, pharmacoepidemiology, or behavioral health):
BIOS:6650	Causal Inference	3 s.h.	Spring
BIOS:5120	Regression & ANOVA in the Health Sciences	3 s.h.	Spring
CBH:5220	Health Behavior and Health Education	3 s.h.	Fall
CBH:5305	Evaluation: Approaches and Applications	3 s.h.	Fall
CBH:5310	Qualitative Research for Public Health	3 s.h.	Spring even years
CBH:6205	Designing and Implementing Interventions	3 s.h.	Fall
CBH: 5235	Community-Based Participatory Research	3 s.h.	Spring
EPID:6075	Health Equity and Social Justice	3 s.h.	Spring
EPID:6900	Design of Intervention and Clinical Trials	3 s.h.	Fall
EPID:6071	Social Epidemiology	3 s.h.	Fall
EPID:6420	Survey Design and Analysis	3 s.h.	Spring even years
EPID:6920	Applied Administrative Data Analysis	2 s.h.	Fall
OEH:4310	Occupational Ergonomics: Principles	3 s.h.	Fall
CPH:4220	Global Road Safety	3 s.h.	Spring
OEH:5410	Occupational Safety	3 s.h.	Spring even years
GEOG:4150	Health and Environment: GIS Applications	3 s.h.	Fall

*Semester(s) offered subject to change due to enrollment, instructor availability, etc. Students should always check the course schedule at MyUI.uiowa.edu for the most up to date version of the course schedule.

Centers and Institutes

• University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center
• Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health
• Heartland Center for Occupational Health and Safety
• Institute for Clinical and Translational Science
• Institute of Public Health Research and Policy
• University of Iowa National Advanced Driving Simulator
• University of Iowa Public Policy Center, Crime and Justice Policy Research Program

Research Resources

• HCUP
  • National Inpatient Sample (NIS)
  • National Emergency Department Sample (NEDS)
• IPRC Expert Research Teams: rural acute care, road traffic safety, interpersonal violence, opioid overdose, older adult falls, and intervention & translational research
• Datalys Sports Injury Database

Professional Organizations

• American Public Health Association, Injury Control and Emergency Health Services section
• Society for the Advancement of Injury and Violence Research (SAVIR)
• Safe States Alliance
• Association of Transportation Safety Information Professionals
• Transportation Research Board

Major Research Projects

• See our major research projects at the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center

Doctoral Student Profiles

• Meet some of our doctoral students

Funding Opportunities

Students affiliated with the UI IPRC receive financial support through training and research grants. Funding assistance strengthens our ability to support students interested in conducting research in injury and violence prevention. Learn more about these opportunities…