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Health and Healthcare Disparities in Injuries among Underrepresented Populations

Edited by:
Ashley Blanchard, MD, MS, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, United States of America
Michael Levas, MD, MS, Medical College of Wisconsin, United States of America

Submission Status: Closed

This collection is no longer accepting submissions.


Injury Epidemiology is calling for submissions to our Collection on Health and Healthcare Disparities in Injuries among Underrepresented Populations.

Image credits: © wildpixel / Getty Images / iStock


New Content ItemThis collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being, SDG 5: Gender EqualitySDG 8: Decent Work and Economic GrowthSDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

  1. Vulnerable populations at risk of injury include persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and persons who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). The purpose of this study was to describe and...

    Authors: Terry L. Bunn, Jacqueline Seals, Dana Quesinberry, Alaina Murphy and Julia F. Costich
    Citation: Injury Epidemiology 2025 12:27
  2. Our pediatric tertiary care hospital sees a high rate of firearm injuries. Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs) reduce violent injury recidivism rates in victims. However, significant gaps exi...

    Authors: Narmeen I. Khan, Sri S. Chinta, Brooke M. Cheaton, Mark Nimmer and Michael N. Levas
    Citation: Injury Epidemiology 2025 12:24
  3. Firearms became the leading cause of death in the United States pediatric population in 2019 and have persisted as the leading cause through 2021, with widening racial and ethnic disparities. We aimed to exami...

    Authors: Rafael Klein-Cloud, Bailey Roberts, Emma Cornell, Colleen Nofi and Chethan Sathya
    Citation: Injury Epidemiology 2025 12:19
  4. Nearly 7,000 snakebite injuries are reported yearly in the United States, with almost one quarter of those in the pediatric population. Due to increased exposure to snakes, rural children may experience differ...

    Authors: Kristyn Jeffries, Sara C. Sanders, Rachel Ekdahl, Dustin E. Williford, Maxwell Taylor, Charalene Fisher, Jacob Filipek, Brittany Slagle, Esma Birisci and Rebecca M. Cantu
    Citation: Injury Epidemiology 2025 12:11
  5. Veterans show increased vulnerability to trauma exposure. Yet, there is limited research examining Veterans’ prevalence of experiencing different trauma exposure types by race, gender, and ethnicity and across...

    Authors: Fernanda S. Rossi, Yael I. Nillni, Alexandria N. Miller, Annie B. Fox, Johanne Eliacin, Paula P. Schnurr, Christopher C. Duke, Jaimie L. Gradus and Tara E. Galovski
    Citation: Injury Epidemiology 2025 12:8
  6. Rates of suicide remain elevated among U.S. Veterans and have increased disproportionately among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Veterans. Knowledge is limited regarding suicide prevention considera...

    Authors: Evan R. Polzer, Carly M. Rohs, Christe’An D. Iglesias, Joseph Mignogna, Lauren S. Krishnamurti, Ryan Holliday and Lindsey L. Monteith
    Citation: Injury Epidemiology 2025 12:5
  7. Social vulnerability may play a role in social media-involved crime, but few studies have investigated this issue. We investigated associations between social vulnerability and social media-involved violent cr...

    Authors: Jemar R. Bather, Diana Silver, Brendan P. Gill, Adrian Harris, Jin Yung Bae, Nina S. Parikh and Melody S. Goodman
    Citation: Injury Epidemiology 2024 11:54
  8. Incorporating post-discharge data into trauma registries would allow for better research on patient outcomes, including disparities in outcomes. This pilot study tested a follow-up data collection process to b...

    Authors: Hannah Scheuer, Kelsey M. Conrick, Brianna Mills, Esther Solano, Saman Arbabi, Eileen M. Bulger, Danae Dotolo, Christopher St. Vil, Monica S. Vavilala, Ali Rowhani-Rahbar and Megan Moore
    Citation: Injury Epidemiology 2024 11:46

Meet the Guest Editors

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Ashley Blanchard, MD, MS, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA

Dr. Ashley Blanchard is a pediatric emergency room physician and Assistant Professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her research focuses on prevention of pediatric injuries and deaths within the high-risk and under-represented populations she treats in the emergency room. She has a specific interest in emergency department-based firearm-related injury prevention and the epidemiology of injuries in children with autism spectrum disorder. Her current work aims to 1) use mobile health technology to reduce adolescent access to lethal means, such as firearms, and prevent adolescent suicide and 2) describe the unique injuries that children with autism spectrum disorder sustain to provide evidence for preventive interventions.
 

Michael Levas, MD, MS, Medical College of Wisconsin, USA

Dr. Michael Levas is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. His research surrounds health care disparities and youth violence intervention/prevention. He has a particular interest in firearm related injuries and their impact on youth, family, and community well-being. He serves on the boards of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, and the American Academy of Pediatric Council on Injury, Violence, Poison Prevention.

About the Collection

Injuries differentially affect various populations and underrepresented populations have a greater burden of injury mortality and morbidity, across the lifespan. Studies demonstrate that non-White children are at greater risk of injury or death from firearm injuries, sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), pedestrian injuries, drowning, and motor-vehicle collisions (in addition to other mechanisms of injury). Injuries occur from a combination of human factors, technical factors, and environmental factors (including physical and socioeconomic) that contribute to disparities in injuries among underrepresented populations.

Of note, underrepresented populations may include race, religious-association, sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, or disability status. Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of injury or of opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

This Collection may include the following topics, although not limited to:

  • Interventions to reduce environmental or healthcare-related disparities in the prevention or treatment of injuries among under-represented populations.
  • Epidemiologic description of disparities in the built-environment, access to injury prevention equipment, injury prevention education, incidence of injuries, or treatment of injuries.
  • Description of specific mechanisms of injury that contribute to disparities.
  • Interventions to promote health equity as it relates to.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original research articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. 

Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. Please, select the appropriate Collection title “Health and Healthcare Disparities in Injuries among Underrepresented Populations" under the “Details” tab during the submission stage.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer-review process. The peer-review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.