Reducing violent injuries among American youth

PROJECT SUMMARY The overarching goal of Dr. Jay’s research project is to identify optimal strategies for reducing violent injuries among American youth. Specifically, this K01 tests whether youth violence injuries can be reduced by bolstering individual-level programs with community-level strategies. Dr. Jay will assess the role of physical infrastructure and neighborhood of residence in youth violent injuries (Aim 1); conduct participatory mapping with youth in Boston, MA to identify novel targets for infrastructure investments (Aim 2); and test possible intervention strategies in a computer-simulated environment to determine which strategies produce the greatest reductions in youth violent injuries, within realistic budgetary constraints (Aim 3). The proposed research builds upon Dr. Jay’s prior research on place-based interventions for violence prevention and his postdoctoral training in youth violent injury and computational epidemiology. Dr. Jay has assembled a mentorship team led by his primary mentor, Dr. Emily Rothman, Professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). Co-mentors include Dr. David Williams, the Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH); Dr. Melissa Tracy, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at SUNY-Albany; Dr. Ankur Pandya, Associate Professor of Health Decision Science at HSPH. Advisors are Dr. Sandro Galea, the Dean and Kahn Distinguished Professor at Washington University School of Public Health and Dr. Charles Branas, the Chair of Epidemiology at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. The resources available at BUSPH, coupled with the expertise of Dr. Jay’s mentorship team, will ensure Dr. Jay’s successful completion of the research and training aims and his development as an independent investigator.