Summary

Injury prevention encompasses all the processes, strategies, and approaches designed to mitigate any unintentional or intentional bodily damage from external causes, such as motor vehicle crashes, falls from height, or incidents resulting in deprivation of the two essential elements needed for the proper functioning of the body, oxygen and heat. The methods for developing injury prevention strategies have undergone a steady upward developmental trajectory since Hippocratic times. In particular, the past few decades have witnessed transformative innovations from a myriad of studies that focused on the best strategies to prevent injury from occurring and/or to mitigate the severity of injury when primary prevention fails. These methods, techniques, and processes for developing injury prevention strategies and interventions are generally classified as falling under the “6 Es” of injury prevention: education, engineering modifications, enforcement/enactment, economic incentive (equity), empowerment, and evaluation. The Haddon matrix is the primary conceptual framework for developing injury prevention strategies. Other issues that are germane to effective injury prevention include synergism of interventions and appropriate transfer of interventions across settings.