Assessing National Capacity for Injury and Violence Prevention: Findings from the 2011 State of the States Survey

Background: Injuries are the leading cause of death for people 1-44 years of age in the United States. State injury and violence prevention (IVP) programs are critical to implementing a public health approach within their states. They also play a key role in building and sustaining delivery and support systems to implement best-practice and evidence-based programs. This presentation will report results of the 2011 State of the States (SOTS) survey that measures state public health departments' capacity for supporting IVP efforts. Methods: SOTS is a national biennial survey administered by Safe States Alliance to each U.S. state health department's IVP program. It measures state IVP programs' capacity across five core areas: infrastructure, collecting and analyzing data, evaluation, technical assistance and training, and affecting public policy. The 2011 data will be compared to results from previous administrations to measure significant changes in key variables related to staffing, funding, partnerships, infrastructure, surveillance, programs/interventions, and policy efforts. Results: This presentation will report 2011 SOTS findings, highlight correlating capacity variables, and make comparisons across four survey administrations. The presentation will also provide an overview of states' capacity in five core areas and highlight variables that show significant change over time. Finally, the presentation will discuss what these trends suggest for injury and violence prevention programs nationally. Conclusions: State health department IVP programs have developed core capacities to help build and sustain prevention delivery systems. Measuring changes in capacity highlights their achievements, identifies barriers to implementing evidence-based programs, and provides direction for future development.