I had the pleasure and privilege of working as an Associate Editor for the journal "Injury Prevention" for several years alongside Barry as Editor-in-Chief. This story about how we first met says a lot about Barry. We first met at one of the early World Injury Prevention Conferences. We were both sitting on the front row in one of those parallel session rooms waiting to give our presentations. I had just had one of my first papers published in the first volume of Injury Prevention. I was rather over-awed to be sitting next to Barry, and even more over-awed to be giving a presentation in the same session as him. He leaned over and said how much he had liked my paper that had been published in Injury Prevention. I was amazed that he could remember one paper from so many and that he took the time and effort to tell me this. As a young researcher, his encouragement meant a lot to me. Typically, for him, he continued to encourage and support my development as a researcher and in later years I had the privilege of learning from his scientific integrity, wisdom and common sense through working with him on the journal. I am truly grateful to Barry for this. I know I was not unique in benefitting from Barry's support, encouragement and mentorship. He fulfilled this role with numerous researchers, and many of us would not be where we are today without his support.
Barry's work as Editor of Injury Prevention has been inspirational. His leadership, vision, c...
I had the pleasure and privilege of working as an Associate Editor for the journal "Injury Prevention" for several years alongside Barry as Editor-in-Chief. This story about how we first met says a lot about Barry. We first met at one of the early World Injury Prevention Conferences. We were both sitting on the front row in one of those parallel session rooms waiting to give our presentations. I had just had one of my first papers published in the first volume of Injury Prevention. I was rather over-awed to be sitting next to Barry, and even more over-awed to be giving a presentation in the same session as him. He leaned over and said how much he had liked my paper that had been published in Injury Prevention. I was amazed that he could remember one paper from so many and that he took the time and effort to tell me this. As a young researcher, his encouragement meant a lot to me. Typically, for him, he continued to encourage and support my development as a researcher and in later years I had the privilege of learning from his scientific integrity, wisdom and common sense through working with him on the journal. I am truly grateful to Barry for this. I know I was not unique in benefitting from Barry's support, encouragement and mentorship. He fulfilled this role with numerous researchers, and many of us would not be where we are today without his support.
Barry's work as Editor of Injury Prevention has been inspirational. His leadership, vision, commitment, dedication and sheer hard work laid the foundations for making the journal the success it is today. He used these same qualities to excellent effect to promote and advocate for injury prevention. He was an inspiration to so many, a giant in our field and our discipline is poorer without him.
Thanks to Professor Salmi for a thoughtful and insightful commentary spanning several topics. I read all with interest but respond in particular to the challenge of peer review. Weekly, I accept and conduct about one peer review for a journal, almost exclusively the five journals for which I serve on the Editorial Board (including Injury Prevention). In 2023, I will complete about 60 manuscript reviews. Also weekly, I turn away at least 5 other review requests, often recommending colleagues and former students as alternative reviewers. I have no idea if my patterns are typical, but I do know that the requests sometimes overwhelm me. I regret declining so many invitations, recognizing the value of peer review for quality science as well as the struggles of journal editors to find qualified reviewers, but I simply cannot fit more into my busy schedule.
Assuming my behavior is at least somewhat typical, what is our solution? I wish I had a magic formula.. Professor Salmi offers several ideas, all of which I support (and yes, compensation for reviewing would be terrific, but I also recognize journal budgets are tight). I have a few other ideas to offer, most of which are already practiced to some extent:
- Pass reviews from one journal to another. It is not unusual for me to be asked to review a manuscript that I have already reviewed for a different journal, the first of which chose to reject it. I know some journal families are passing reviews from one journal...
Thanks to Professor Salmi for a thoughtful and insightful commentary spanning several topics. I read all with interest but respond in particular to the challenge of peer review. Weekly, I accept and conduct about one peer review for a journal, almost exclusively the five journals for which I serve on the Editorial Board (including Injury Prevention). In 2023, I will complete about 60 manuscript reviews. Also weekly, I turn away at least 5 other review requests, often recommending colleagues and former students as alternative reviewers. I have no idea if my patterns are typical, but I do know that the requests sometimes overwhelm me. I regret declining so many invitations, recognizing the value of peer review for quality science as well as the struggles of journal editors to find qualified reviewers, but I simply cannot fit more into my busy schedule.
Assuming my behavior is at least somewhat typical, what is our solution? I wish I had a magic formula.. Professor Salmi offers several ideas, all of which I support (and yes, compensation for reviewing would be terrific, but I also recognize journal budgets are tight). I have a few other ideas to offer, most of which are already practiced to some extent:
- Pass reviews from one journal to another. It is not unusual for me to be asked to review a manuscript that I have already reviewed for a different journal, the first of which chose to reject it. I know some journal families are passing reviews from one journal to another; finding a way to partner and pass across journal families would reduce burden on reviewers as well as helping authors improve their work most efficiently.
- Help authors submit higher quality manuscripts. Continued efforts to mentor authors and improve first submissions would reduce reviewer burden and improve the quality of science published.
- Increase editorial screening and triaging prior to peer review. To my knowledge, the extent to which journal editorial teams screen submissions and reject prior to peer review varies widely. Top journals do this extensively and lower-tier journals very little or not at all. Increasing this screening could reduce reviewer burden, expedite author publishing in a journal that is a good fit for their research, and generally improve the publishing process. Of course, it comes at a price: more time and effort for editors.
In short, I thank Professor Salmi for his thought-provoking commentary and look forward to collaborative efforts to identify feasible solutions to ease the burden on reviewers and researchers but also ensure quality peer review and published injury science.
The influential leadership of Barry Pless is one of the reasons why I am now the Editor-in-Chief of the journal he founded. Early on in my injury research career, he often called on me to be an expert reviewer of papers relating to bicycle helmet wearing as there was significant interest in this topic in the 1990s and 2000s, in particular. As an early career researcher at that time, his selection of me to be a reviewer for this prestigious journal was an honour and a great research development opportunity for me.
Also, influential for my early career shaping, were Barry’s items about the field and its leaders. One such item was a piece he wrote in the early days of Injury Prevention about the top 10 most published injury prevention researchers of all time. This proved to be one of the most influential items I’d read, and it shaped my career. I was particularly inspired to learn of people like John Langley and David Chalmers, injury research leaders from New Zealand, relatively close to where I was in Australia. They became good role models for me, and I actively sought them out as mentors. That would not have happened without Barry’s editorial items.
On a more personal front, I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks of study leave in Canada in the mid-2000s. I added a side trip to Montreal to visit Barry and discuss publishing matters. Whilst our discussions were great, what I recall most was him being disappointed that he was unable to take me to have a true...
The influential leadership of Barry Pless is one of the reasons why I am now the Editor-in-Chief of the journal he founded. Early on in my injury research career, he often called on me to be an expert reviewer of papers relating to bicycle helmet wearing as there was significant interest in this topic in the 1990s and 2000s, in particular. As an early career researcher at that time, his selection of me to be a reviewer for this prestigious journal was an honour and a great research development opportunity for me.
Also, influential for my early career shaping, were Barry’s items about the field and its leaders. One such item was a piece he wrote in the early days of Injury Prevention about the top 10 most published injury prevention researchers of all time. This proved to be one of the most influential items I’d read, and it shaped my career. I was particularly inspired to learn of people like John Langley and David Chalmers, injury research leaders from New Zealand, relatively close to where I was in Australia. They became good role models for me, and I actively sought them out as mentors. That would not have happened without Barry’s editorial items.
On a more personal front, I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks of study leave in Canada in the mid-2000s. I added a side trip to Montreal to visit Barry and discuss publishing matters. Whilst our discussions were great, what I recall most was him being disappointed that he was unable to take me to have a true Canadian experience by attending an ice hockey game; my visit had unfortunately coincided with the 2004-05 NHL lockout.
Thank you, Barry for your vision and leadership and for helping set the basis of my own long standing injury prevention research career.
The article "Trends in the drowning mortality rate in Iran" by Pegah Derakhshan et al. in Injury Prevention · August 2020 DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2019-043225 is a valuable contribution to understanding the trend of drowning in Iran. However, It is true that the authors of the article used statistical methods to estimate the levels and trends of drowning mortality rate based on Death Registry System (DRS) data, which is known to be incomplete and subject to misclassification. In Iran, data sources for attributing fatal and non-fatal drowning are include DRS, FMS and INDR. However, it is important to note that drowning incidents and fatalities are universally underreported in the Iran.
The Death Registry System (DRS) is a new system, managed by Iran’s Ministry of Health, is currently being expanded to the whole of Iran. Records for this registry system are also generated using death certificate information. If not available – by verbal autopsy. DRS that information is collected from records generated by many other sources: rural health house, health and treatment centres (rural, urban), hospitals, register offices (1). Previous study resulted that DRS registry reported 60% of all rural cases, while the records reported a slight majority of urban cases (about 51%) (2).
Iran's Forensic Medicine Organization manages the Forensic Medical System (FMS), which is used to identify many injury-related deaths in the country. The FMS records are based on inf...
The article "Trends in the drowning mortality rate in Iran" by Pegah Derakhshan et al. in Injury Prevention · August 2020 DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2019-043225 is a valuable contribution to understanding the trend of drowning in Iran. However, It is true that the authors of the article used statistical methods to estimate the levels and trends of drowning mortality rate based on Death Registry System (DRS) data, which is known to be incomplete and subject to misclassification. In Iran, data sources for attributing fatal and non-fatal drowning are include DRS, FMS and INDR. However, it is important to note that drowning incidents and fatalities are universally underreported in the Iran.
The Death Registry System (DRS) is a new system, managed by Iran’s Ministry of Health, is currently being expanded to the whole of Iran. Records for this registry system are also generated using death certificate information. If not available – by verbal autopsy. DRS that information is collected from records generated by many other sources: rural health house, health and treatment centres (rural, urban), hospitals, register offices (1). Previous study resulted that DRS registry reported 60% of all rural cases, while the records reported a slight majority of urban cases (about 51%) (2).
Iran's Forensic Medicine Organization manages the Forensic Medical System (FMS), which is used to identify many injury-related deaths in the country. The FMS records are based on information from death certificates, local police departments, and for drowning cases often include information from reports made by the Red Crescent Society, which employs many of the lifeguards and health care providers in the area. The completeness of the FMS records for drowning was found to be 54.4% in a study that compared the FMS records with the Death Registry System records(3).
Iran National Registry of Drowning (INRD), which is the national statistical database of Iran for registering drowning cases.
It is believed that using a combination of DRS, FMS and INDR databases with other available sources can improve the accuracy and completeness of drowning data collection in Iran. Statistical estimation alone may not provide accurate data, and a more comprehensive approach is needed to better understand the burden of drowning in Iran and develop effective prevention strategies.
According to the results of the article, it is necessary to address the insufficiency of Death Registry System (DRS) and the underestimation of drowning rates in certain areas to improve the accuracy of drowning data collection in Iran. For example, Guilan and Mazandaran provinces in northern Iran bordering the Caspian Sea are tourist destinations, and if a tourist person drowns in a specific area (Guilan province), but their residence is in another area (for example, Qom province in central Iran), the drowning data is added to the area of residence, leading to inaccurate data. It is worth noting that many provinces in central Iran, such as Qom and Yazd, which do not have access to water, have been estimated to have high rates of drowning. Therefore, it is important to use a combination of DRS and Forensic Medicine Service (FMS) databases with other available sources to improve the accuracy and completeness of drowning data collection in Iran.
In addition, according to the previous study, children aged 11-15 years and boys are particularly at risk of drowning in Iran, with a boy to girl ratio of approximately 2:1 (4). However, the results of the study mentioned in the previous question may not be in accordance with this finding due to the incomplete dataset used. One study published in Guilan and Mazandaran provinces in northern Iran revealed a male-to-female relative risk of 5.84 in the resident population during the first year of measurement, which rose to 10.9 during the final year of the study period (5). However, it is not clear how this finding relates to the overall trend in drowning mortality rate in Iran, which has been reported to have decreased from 1990 to 2015, with an annual percentage change of -5.28% for males and -10.73% for females.
Furthermore, the method section of the article mentioned that to estimate the rate of death due to drowning in the Iranian population from 1990 to 2015, ICD-10 codes V90, V90.0, V90.01–V90.9, V92–V92.9, W65–W70.9, and W73–W74.9 were considered as drowning, while there is no dataset in Iran that is based on ICD-10. However, the Iran National Registry of Drowning (INRD), has recently been established as the national statistical database of Iran for registering drowning cases based on ICD-10 in northern Iran.
Efforts to improve data collection methods and accuracy can help address this public health problem and reduce the burden of drowning in Iran. Some studies have suggested that drowning prevention programs can be effective in reducing drowning mortality rates in Iran, and high-quality local drowning data can be employed to target and model prevention effort.
Ali Davoudi Kiakalayeh MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences. Rasht, Iran, davoudikiakalayeh@gmail.com
1. Davoudi-Kiakalayeh A, Dalal K, Yousefzade-Chabok S, Jansson B, Mohammad R. (2011). Costs related to drowning and near drowning in northern Iran (Guilan province). Ocean & coastal management 54 (3), 250-255.
2. Kiakalayeh AD, Mohammadi R, Stark Ekman D, Yousefzade-Chabok S, Behboudi F, Jansson B. Estimating drowning deaths in Northern Iran using capture-recapture method. Health Policy (New York). 2011;100(2–3):290–6.
3. Ali Davoudi-Kiakalayeh, Reza Mohammadi, Shahrokh Yousefzade-Chabok, Sohiel Saadat. Road traffic crashes in rural setting: an experience of middle income country. Chinese Journal of Traumatology, 17(06):327-330, 2014.
4. Extent and trend of children drowning-A cohort study in northern Iran, Davoudi-Kiakalayeh et al, (Submitted).
5. Davoudi-kiakalayeh A, Mohammadi R, Yousefzade-Chabok S, Jansson B. Evaluation of a community-based drowning prevention programme in northern Islamic Republic of Iran. East Mediterr Heal J. 2013;19(7):629–37.
Thank you for reading the study. We appreciate your feedback and the suggestion of papers to include.
The Miller et al. 2021 paper was not yet indexed in EconLit at the time of the systematic review pull; therefore, was not included. However, even if we had identified the study it would not have been included in the final list of manuscripts as it does not include original analysis but rather combines previous estimates with new counts.
The Yang et al. 2014 paper was excluded during review as it included non-original analysis. This paper used several estimates from previously published literature and applied to Iowa counts.
Based on this response, we are issuing an erratum that clarifies that our manuscript only included research with original costs as inputs or outputs.
You are correct that we omitted several non-peer reviewed studies. In the study we state, “This review was limited to peer-reviewed publications and excluded books, non-peer reviewed publications, white papers and dissertations.”
This review has not considered several relevant previously published items. These include:
TR Miller, MA Cohen, D Swedler, B Ali, D Hendrie. Incidence and Costs of Personal and Property
Crimes in the United States, 2017, Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, 12:1, 24-54, 2021.
JZ Yang, TR Miller, N Zhang, B LeHew, C Peek-Asa. Incidence and Cost of Sexual Violence in Iowa,
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47:2, 198-202, 2014.
It also omits mention of Californian studies on the costs of sexual violence and on the costs of firearm
injury in Santa Clara County that are not in the peer-review journal literature, as well as the firearm
injury cost article in Mother Jones, and several other city firearm injury cost studies available on the
web.
Correspondence:
Nearly 60% of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) experience different degrees of cognitive dysfunction, including impairment of memory and abstract reasoning.[1] A retrospective cohort study using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database revealed that SCI significantly increased the likelihood of dementia.[2] This result aligns with previous clinical reports stating that patients with SCI frequently develop long-term cognitive impairments.[1]
I read the article “Savings of loss-of-life expectancy and lifetime medical costs from prevention of spinal cord injuries: analysis of nationwide data followed for 17 years” [3] with deep interest. The study investigators have reported the outcomes from a comprehensive and long-term follow-up effort exploring the impact of traumatic SCI in Taiwan. In this study, Lien et al. classified traumatic SCI into traumatic quadriplegia and paraplegia with different mechanisms of injury. They reported that traumatic quadriplegia incurs higher lifetime medical costs than traumatic paraplegia.[3] Upon comparing the clinical characteristics of patients with traumatic quadriplegia and paraplegia, the prevalence of dementia after quadriplegia resulting from motor vehicle accidents (MVA) was found to be higher than that after paraplegia resulting from MVA (3.7% vs. 1.5%, p < 0.05).[3] The strength of this study lies in its comprehensive data on the SCI level, mechanisms of injury, and medical...
Correspondence:
Nearly 60% of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) experience different degrees of cognitive dysfunction, including impairment of memory and abstract reasoning.[1] A retrospective cohort study using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database revealed that SCI significantly increased the likelihood of dementia.[2] This result aligns with previous clinical reports stating that patients with SCI frequently develop long-term cognitive impairments.[1]
I read the article “Savings of loss-of-life expectancy and lifetime medical costs from prevention of spinal cord injuries: analysis of nationwide data followed for 17 years” [3] with deep interest. The study investigators have reported the outcomes from a comprehensive and long-term follow-up effort exploring the impact of traumatic SCI in Taiwan. In this study, Lien et al. classified traumatic SCI into traumatic quadriplegia and paraplegia with different mechanisms of injury. They reported that traumatic quadriplegia incurs higher lifetime medical costs than traumatic paraplegia.[3] Upon comparing the clinical characteristics of patients with traumatic quadriplegia and paraplegia, the prevalence of dementia after quadriplegia resulting from motor vehicle accidents (MVA) was found to be higher than that after paraplegia resulting from MVA (3.7% vs. 1.5%, p < 0.05).[3] The strength of this study lies in its comprehensive data on the SCI level, mechanisms of injury, and medical costs. However, the study did not control for potential confounders, such as concurrent traumatic brain injury (TBI), dementia, and Charlson Comorbidity Index, that may have influenced medical costs. In patients with SCI, neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation after a traumatic injury may increase the risk of dementia. Wu et al. conducted SCI studies using animal models and demonstrated that chronic neuroinflammation with microglial activation is associated with neurodegeneration,[4] a pathogenesis similar to that of Alzheimer’s disease. Consequently, identifying potential risk factors of dementia in traumatic SCI patients and establishing a preventive strategy are essential in public health. A recent nationwide cohort study revealed that rehabilitation training (physical therapy and occupational therapy) in traumatic SCI lowers the risk of psychiatric disorders, including dementia and depression, after controlling for potential confounders, such as sex, age, and comorbidities.[5] If the authors want to compare the risk of dementia in SCI patients with quadriplegia and paraplegia, controlling for possible confounding factors, such as sex, age, and TBI, should be considered. Further studies exploring alternative interventions to prevent cognitive deterioration among individuals with traumatic SCI, especially among individuals with quadriplegia, are warranted.
Conflict of interest statement
The author has no conflict of interest to declare.
References:
1. Davidoff GN, Roth EJ, Richards JS. Cognitive deficits in spinal cord injury: epidemiology and outcome. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1992;73:275–84.
2. Huang SW, Wang WT, Chou LC, et al. Risk of dementia in patients with spinal cord injury: A nationwide population-based cohort study. J Neurotrauma 2017;34:615–22.
3. Lien WC, Wang WM, Wang F, et al. Savings of loss-of-life expectancy and lifetime medical costs from prevention of spinal cord injuries: analysis of nationwide data followed for 17 years. Inj Prev 2021;injuryprev-2020-043943. [published online ahead of print: 22 Jan 2021]. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2020-043943.
4. Wu J, Stoica BA, Luo T, et al. Isolated spinal cord contusion in rats induces chronic brain neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and cognitive impairment. Involvement of cell cycle activation. Cell Cycle 2014;13:2446–58.
5. Wan FJ, Chien WC, Chung CH, et al. Association between traumatic spinal cord injury and affective and other psychiatric disorders–a nationwide cohort study and effects of rehabilitation therapies. J Affect Disord 2020;265:381–8.
Partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: an emergency into the emergency
Pietro Ferrara, MD 1 *
Luciana Albano, MD 2
Affiliation
1. Center for Public Health Research, University of Milano – Bicocca, Monza, Italy
2. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy
* Corresponding author:
Pietro Ferrara
Center for Public Health Research, University of Milan - Bicocca
Via Cadore 48, I-20900 Monza, Italy
Phone +39 (0)39-2333097/8 p_ferrara@alice.it
To the Editor,
With interest, we read the publication by Jetelina and coll., titled “Changes in intimate partner violence during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA” [1], in which authors described changes in patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) during lockdown restriction implemented in response to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
Similarly in Italy, a significant increase of IPV cases was recorded as early as the first weeks of March, when social isolation forced people to stay at home after the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, the government instituted the free phone number 1522 as help line for IPV victims, with the aim to reach mainly women, who always experience the greater burden of domestic violence and abuse [2]. The National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) rel...
Partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: an emergency into the emergency
Pietro Ferrara, MD 1 *
Luciana Albano, MD 2
Affiliation
1. Center for Public Health Research, University of Milano – Bicocca, Monza, Italy
2. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy
* Corresponding author:
Pietro Ferrara
Center for Public Health Research, University of Milan - Bicocca
Via Cadore 48, I-20900 Monza, Italy
Phone +39 (0)39-2333097/8 p_ferrara@alice.it
To the Editor,
With interest, we read the publication by Jetelina and coll., titled “Changes in intimate partner violence during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA” [1], in which authors described changes in patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) during lockdown restriction implemented in response to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
Similarly in Italy, a significant increase of IPV cases was recorded as early as the first weeks of March, when social isolation forced people to stay at home after the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, the government instituted the free phone number 1522 as help line for IPV victims, with the aim to reach mainly women, who always experience the greater burden of domestic violence and abuse [2]. The National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) released data on the utilization of the 1522 line from March to June 2020, highlighting an increase of 119.7% of phone and chat contacts compared with the same period of 2019 (6,956 vs. 15,280). The majority of registered calls were attributable to violence and stalking cases, followed by questions on type of service offered and modality of access [3]. Interestingly, the time-trend analysis of calls showed that their number diminished during the weekend days as well as in correspondence of religious and national holidays (such as Easter April 12th; Liberation Day April 25th; Labor Day May 1st), likely attributable to a more control over victims’ freedom of movements.
Alongside the Italian data, findings from Jetelina and coll. described an emergency into the emergency, being also more severe than that came out from presented research and report. Indeed, coverage of data informing on IPV are limited and potential reporting biases should be related to sparsity and uncertainty in rural and peripheral areas, where people are less prone to trusting the provided services [2].
In this frame, further research is needed to provide more accurate estimates of the burden of IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, in order to provide actionable metrics for the implementation of specific public health measures and social actions.
References
1. Jetelina KK, Knell G, Molsberry RJ Changes in intimate partner violence during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA Injury Prevention Published Online First: 01 September 2020. doi: 10.1136/injuryprev-2020-043831
2. James SL, Castle CD, Dingels ZV, et al Global injury morbidity and mortality from 1990 to 2017: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 Injury Prevention Published Online First: 24 April 2020. doi: 10.1136/injuryprev-2019-043494
3. Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT). Il numero verde 1522 durante la pandemia (periodo marzo - giugno 2020). August 2020. Available at: https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/246557. Last accessed on September 3, 2020
4. Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT). L’allerta internazionale e le evidenze nazionali attraverso i dati del 1522 e delle Forze di Polizia. La violenza di genere al tempo del coronavirus: Marzo - Maggio 2020. Available at: https://www.istat.it/it/files//2020/05/Dati-del-1522-e-delle-Forze-di-Po... accessed on September 3, 2020
Your air pollution reduction benefit is based on a very poor
assumption of all new cyclists were former drivers (per Rabl and De
Nazelle) could be no more wrong than in NYC with the biggest public
transit system in the US, lowest per capita car ownership and miles driven
of any major city, and where over 56% of workers use public transit, and
over 10% walk. Even the estimated 30% who drive or cab to work are
unlikely to...
Your air pollution reduction benefit is based on a very poor
assumption of all new cyclists were former drivers (per Rabl and De
Nazelle) could be no more wrong than in NYC with the biggest public
transit system in the US, lowest per capita car ownership and miles driven
of any major city, and where over 56% of workers use public transit, and
over 10% walk. Even the estimated 30% who drive or cab to work are
unlikely to convert to bicycling given how they might be elderly/disabled,
choose not to even walk to public transit bus stops and subway stations,
or may drive cabs or delivery vehicles for work.
Unless you get accurate survey information of mode shifts from new
cyclists since bike lane institution, you have no basis to make your huge
claims of air pollution reduction, and thus can't claim even 25% of the
air quality benefit you do to non-riders. In Rabl and De Nazelle cyclists
suffer from greater exposure to air pollution in traffic than non-riders.
Rider positive benefit is limited to added exercise.
I hope you reconsider your assumptions and calculations to produce a
more accurate estimation of bike lane cost-effectiveness.
On 25 April 2015 Nepal witnessed a huge earthquake of 7.8 magnitude
claiming over 8000 lives and injuring more than 23,000[1].Those injured
incurred either crush injuries, fractures or head and spinal cord trauma.
WHO estimates,over 400 people have sustained spinal cord injuries owing to
earthquake.[2]. They have become either paralyzed or developed weakness of
limbs (paraparesis) extending from neck downward (quadriparesi...
On 25 April 2015 Nepal witnessed a huge earthquake of 7.8 magnitude
claiming over 8000 lives and injuring more than 23,000[1].Those injured
incurred either crush injuries, fractures or head and spinal cord trauma.
WHO estimates,over 400 people have sustained spinal cord injuries owing to
earthquake.[2]. They have become either paralyzed or developed weakness of
limbs (paraparesis) extending from neck downward (quadriparesis) or in
lower limbs (paraparesis) with bladder and bowel dysfunction.
While many sustained primary injuries due to earthquake, many others
sustained secondary injuries due to improper transportation of these
patients to health facilities. Much of the reachable health facilities
were damaged by earthquake and thus patients needing immediate spinal
support were further deteriorated by this situation. In addition, majority
of the health care providers involved in the search ,rescue and the
evacuation were unaware of the concept of correct immobilization, log roll
and transport technique. The use of the spinal board was hardly seen. This
resulted in the neurological and vertebral damage further worsening to
complete SCI(Spinal Cord Injuries).
Spinal cord injury has a devastating effect in a person's life ranging
from psychosocial impact to the different grades of disability. The
challenges posed by spinal cord injuries vary in wide spectrum,
particularly treatment of which demands clinician's technical expertise
and advanced surgical facilities. Even in an advanced technical facility,
treatment requires a concentrated effort and dedication of both the
clinicians and the patients. With the good medical, nursing and
physiotherapy most of the cases can be revived back to the normal.
In Nepal, the only rehabilitation center, situated in Kavre district has
received 150 patients with spinal injuries during the period of April to
August 2015.There might have been several other cases of spinal cord
injuries which might have been undocumented. Many undocumented cases might
have been either unable to reach health center particularly, spinal cord-
treating centres or might have given up hopes. This suggests the need of
spinal injury treatment centres and inadequacy of current level of health
facilities.
Incomplete quadriplegia has good recovery while complete have bad
prognosis. In Saga Spinal cord injury treatment center, among the treated
cases, no death has been reported so far, however, the complications like
Pressure sore has been reported in 16 patients. Impairment of autonomous
dysfunction such as Urinary Treatment Centre has been reported in 50
patients and DVT (Deep Venous Thrombosis) in 6 patients. Out of the total
150 cases managed in this spinal cord treatment center, 50% underwent
surgery for unstable fracture of spine while remaining were managed
conservatively.
In Nepal there are 20 spinal surgeons, 12 physiotherapists and 6
occupational therapists. These professionals are overburdened by current
level of work. This necessitates the immediate need of further technical
human resources.
References:
1. Nepal, G.o., Post Disaster Needs Assessment. 2015: Nepal.
2. WHO, WHO mobilizes funds for long-term spinal cord treatment after
Nepal earthquake. 2015: Nepal.
I had the pleasure and privilege of working as an Associate Editor for the journal "Injury Prevention" for several years alongside Barry as Editor-in-Chief. This story about how we first met says a lot about Barry. We first met at one of the early World Injury Prevention Conferences. We were both sitting on the front row in one of those parallel session rooms waiting to give our presentations. I had just had one of my first papers published in the first volume of Injury Prevention. I was rather over-awed to be sitting next to Barry, and even more over-awed to be giving a presentation in the same session as him. He leaned over and said how much he had liked my paper that had been published in Injury Prevention. I was amazed that he could remember one paper from so many and that he took the time and effort to tell me this. As a young researcher, his encouragement meant a lot to me. Typically, for him, he continued to encourage and support my development as a researcher and in later years I had the privilege of learning from his scientific integrity, wisdom and common sense through working with him on the journal. I am truly grateful to Barry for this. I know I was not unique in benefitting from Barry's support, encouragement and mentorship. He fulfilled this role with numerous researchers, and many of us would not be where we are today without his support.
Barry's work as Editor of Injury Prevention has been inspirational. His leadership, vision, c...
Show MoreThanks to Professor Salmi for a thoughtful and insightful commentary spanning several topics. I read all with interest but respond in particular to the challenge of peer review. Weekly, I accept and conduct about one peer review for a journal, almost exclusively the five journals for which I serve on the Editorial Board (including Injury Prevention). In 2023, I will complete about 60 manuscript reviews. Also weekly, I turn away at least 5 other review requests, often recommending colleagues and former students as alternative reviewers. I have no idea if my patterns are typical, but I do know that the requests sometimes overwhelm me. I regret declining so many invitations, recognizing the value of peer review for quality science as well as the struggles of journal editors to find qualified reviewers, but I simply cannot fit more into my busy schedule.
Assuming my behavior is at least somewhat typical, what is our solution? I wish I had a magic formula.. Professor Salmi offers several ideas, all of which I support (and yes, compensation for reviewing would be terrific, but I also recognize journal budgets are tight). I have a few other ideas to offer, most of which are already practiced to some extent:
- Pass reviews from one journal to another. It is not unusual for me to be asked to review a manuscript that I have already reviewed for a different journal, the first of which chose to reject it. I know some journal families are passing reviews from one journal...
Show MoreThe influential leadership of Barry Pless is one of the reasons why I am now the Editor-in-Chief of the journal he founded. Early on in my injury research career, he often called on me to be an expert reviewer of papers relating to bicycle helmet wearing as there was significant interest in this topic in the 1990s and 2000s, in particular. As an early career researcher at that time, his selection of me to be a reviewer for this prestigious journal was an honour and a great research development opportunity for me.
Show MoreAlso, influential for my early career shaping, were Barry’s items about the field and its leaders. One such item was a piece he wrote in the early days of Injury Prevention about the top 10 most published injury prevention researchers of all time. This proved to be one of the most influential items I’d read, and it shaped my career. I was particularly inspired to learn of people like John Langley and David Chalmers, injury research leaders from New Zealand, relatively close to where I was in Australia. They became good role models for me, and I actively sought them out as mentors. That would not have happened without Barry’s editorial items.
On a more personal front, I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks of study leave in Canada in the mid-2000s. I added a side trip to Montreal to visit Barry and discuss publishing matters. Whilst our discussions were great, what I recall most was him being disappointed that he was unable to take me to have a true...
The article "Trends in the drowning mortality rate in Iran" by Pegah Derakhshan et al. in Injury Prevention · August 2020 DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2019-043225 is a valuable contribution to understanding the trend of drowning in Iran. However, It is true that the authors of the article used statistical methods to estimate the levels and trends of drowning mortality rate based on Death Registry System (DRS) data, which is known to be incomplete and subject to misclassification. In Iran, data sources for attributing fatal and non-fatal drowning are include DRS, FMS and INDR. However, it is important to note that drowning incidents and fatalities are universally underreported in the Iran.
Show MoreThe Death Registry System (DRS) is a new system, managed by Iran’s Ministry of Health, is currently being expanded to the whole of Iran. Records for this registry system are also generated using death certificate information. If not available – by verbal autopsy. DRS that information is collected from records generated by many other sources: rural health house, health and treatment centres (rural, urban), hospitals, register offices (1). Previous study resulted that DRS registry reported 60% of all rural cases, while the records reported a slight majority of urban cases (about 51%) (2).
Iran's Forensic Medicine Organization manages the Forensic Medical System (FMS), which is used to identify many injury-related deaths in the country. The FMS records are based on inf...
Thank you for reading the study. We appreciate your feedback and the suggestion of papers to include.
The Miller et al. 2021 paper was not yet indexed in EconLit at the time of the systematic review pull; therefore, was not included. However, even if we had identified the study it would not have been included in the final list of manuscripts as it does not include original analysis but rather combines previous estimates with new counts.
The Yang et al. 2014 paper was excluded during review as it included non-original analysis. This paper used several estimates from previously published literature and applied to Iowa counts.
Based on this response, we are issuing an erratum that clarifies that our manuscript only included research with original costs as inputs or outputs.
You are correct that we omitted several non-peer reviewed studies. In the study we state, “This review was limited to peer-reviewed publications and excluded books, non-peer reviewed publications, white papers and dissertations.”
This review has not considered several relevant previously published items. These include:
TR Miller, MA Cohen, D Swedler, B Ali, D Hendrie. Incidence and Costs of Personal and Property
Crimes in the United States, 2017, Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, 12:1, 24-54, 2021.
JZ Yang, TR Miller, N Zhang, B LeHew, C Peek-Asa. Incidence and Cost of Sexual Violence in Iowa,
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47:2, 198-202, 2014.
It also omits mention of Californian studies on the costs of sexual violence and on the costs of firearm
injury in Santa Clara County that are not in the peer-review journal literature, as well as the firearm
injury cost article in Mother Jones, and several other city firearm injury cost studies available on the
web.
Correspondence:
Nearly 60% of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) experience different degrees of cognitive dysfunction, including impairment of memory and abstract reasoning.[1] A retrospective cohort study using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database revealed that SCI significantly increased the likelihood of dementia.[2] This result aligns with previous clinical reports stating that patients with SCI frequently develop long-term cognitive impairments.[1]
I read the article “Savings of loss-of-life expectancy and lifetime medical costs from prevention of spinal cord injuries: analysis of nationwide data followed for 17 years” [3] with deep interest. The study investigators have reported the outcomes from a comprehensive and long-term follow-up effort exploring the impact of traumatic SCI in Taiwan. In this study, Lien et al. classified traumatic SCI into traumatic quadriplegia and paraplegia with different mechanisms of injury. They reported that traumatic quadriplegia incurs higher lifetime medical costs than traumatic paraplegia.[3] Upon comparing the clinical characteristics of patients with traumatic quadriplegia and paraplegia, the prevalence of dementia after quadriplegia resulting from motor vehicle accidents (MVA) was found to be higher than that after paraplegia resulting from MVA (3.7% vs. 1.5%, p < 0.05).[3] The strength of this study lies in its comprehensive data on the SCI level, mechanisms of injury, and medical...
Show MorePartner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: an emergency into the emergency
Pietro Ferrara, MD 1 *
Luciana Albano, MD 2
Affiliation
1. Center for Public Health Research, University of Milano – Bicocca, Monza, Italy
2. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy
* Corresponding author:
Pietro Ferrara
Center for Public Health Research, University of Milan - Bicocca
Via Cadore 48, I-20900 Monza, Italy
Phone +39 (0)39-2333097/8
p_ferrara@alice.it
To the Editor,
Show MoreWith interest, we read the publication by Jetelina and coll., titled “Changes in intimate partner violence during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA” [1], in which authors described changes in patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) during lockdown restriction implemented in response to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
Similarly in Italy, a significant increase of IPV cases was recorded as early as the first weeks of March, when social isolation forced people to stay at home after the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, the government instituted the free phone number 1522 as help line for IPV victims, with the aim to reach mainly women, who always experience the greater burden of domestic violence and abuse [2]. The National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) rel...
Your air pollution reduction benefit is based on a very poor assumption of all new cyclists were former drivers (per Rabl and De Nazelle) could be no more wrong than in NYC with the biggest public transit system in the US, lowest per capita car ownership and miles driven of any major city, and where over 56% of workers use public transit, and over 10% walk. Even the estimated 30% who drive or cab to work are unlikely to...
On 25 April 2015 Nepal witnessed a huge earthquake of 7.8 magnitude claiming over 8000 lives and injuring more than 23,000[1].Those injured incurred either crush injuries, fractures or head and spinal cord trauma. WHO estimates,over 400 people have sustained spinal cord injuries owing to earthquake.[2]. They have become either paralyzed or developed weakness of limbs (paraparesis) extending from neck downward (quadriparesi...
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