Subsequent Injuries for Youth: Patterns of Reinjury The literature on youth injury indicates that once a child is seriously injured, he or she is at greater risk of further injury - either because he or she is "accident prone" or because he or she lives in a high risk environment. Furthermore, it is suspected that intentional injuries are often masked as unintentional injuries. Employing multiple years of Illinois Trauma Registry and Vital Statistics data, CHDL is examining reinjury in Illinois children to examine (a) patterns of intentional and unintentional injury,
(b) the risk of reinjury, and (c) some aspects of the connection between intentional and unintentional injury.

The Evaluation of the Chicago Comprehensive School Health Education Curriculum (CCSHE) CHDL is evaluating CCSHE, which is a comprehensive plan for school-based health promotion, in grades pre-K through sixth, being implemented by a consortium of institutions - the Chicago Center for Health Systems Development, the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Chicago Public Schools. The curriculum being implemented is the Great Body Shop, which has been shown to be effective at reducing violent and anti-social behavior and improving social health construct scores.

The Public Health Costs of Firearms in Chicago The City of Chicago is providing CHDL with a grant to examine the role of different types of firearms in injury, disability and death in the city. CHDL is linking Chicago Police Department data to Illinois Trauma Registry and Vital Statistics data (employed in SCRIPTS reports; see below) to examine the use of specific firearms in relation to injury and death. Similarly, CHDL will link Chicago Police Department data to medical records at Chicago rehabilitation centers to examine the use of firearms in relation to disability. It is hoped that these analyses will give a fuller account of the effect of guns on public health in Chicago.

The Evaluation of the Safe to Learn Demonstration Project CHDL is evaluating the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority's Safe to Learn Demo Project - a pilot violence prevention program being implemented over the next three years in three school districts in Illinois. Through the collection of survey data and focus group interviews from students, teachers, parents and community leaders, it will be determined if the program is effective and whether the community's commitment to the program has taken root.

Evaluation of Illinois' 1999 CAP Law In July, 1999, Illinois adopted the Child Access Protection Law, which will be implemented January, 2000. This study will measure the firearm safety choices of Illinois parents before the implementation of the law, and one year and two years after implementation. At issue is how effective the law is at improving the knowledge of parents about firearm dangers and changing the behavior of parents who own firearms. The survey is being fielded through the Pediatric Practice Research Group, a consortium of pediatric practices in Illinois. An initial report on the first wave of the survey is expected to be available in June, 2001.

The Evaluation of the Cradles to Classroom Car Seat Program The Center for Childhood Safety here at Children's and the Chicago Public Schools have teamed up to implement a car seat safety program specially designs for high school students who are parents or pregnant. CHDL seeks to evaluate the efficacy of this program, and to identify areas which need to be addressed for the prevention of unintentional injuries.