Lexington, KY - The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC), a partnership between the Kentucky Department for Public Health and the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, has received a $2 million grant to be used over the next five years for violence and injury prevention and motor vehicle prevention programs.

The Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) awarded the university's program funding for continued work as part of the CDC Core Violence and Injury Prevention Program to maintain and strengthen their injury and violence prevention programs.


The university is working with a statewide community injury planning work group known as KSPAN that has more than 100 members. The group is developing a state injury and violence prevention plan according to Terry Bunn, director of the KIPRC and associate professor in the UK College of Public Health. "Our next step will be to implement the plan focusing on prevention in four priority areas with the highest injury rates which include child maltreatment, falls in older adults, teen motor vehicle injuries and prescription drug poisonings."

Kentucky is also receiving funding in the area of motor vehicle prevention. That component will aid in collecting and analyzing data geared to injury prevention in children under age 18 and promote child passenger and teen driver safety through the development and implementation of evidence-based policies and interventions, Bunn said.

Injuries are a leading killer nationwide and the No. 1 cause of death in people under 44, although most injuries are preventable, according to Bunn. KIPRC works to reduce injury through education, policy initiatives, public health programming, surveillance, risk factor analysis, direct interventions, and evaluation a release announcing the funding stated. 

KIPRC was formed in 1994 to initiate and expand education, research, and training in injury prevention. In the past decade, KIPRC has been instrumental in expanding injury research and prevention activities in areas such as trauma care, community injury coalitions, prescription drug abuse, falls, and occupational injuries.