Published January 20, 2026 

Welcome to our first blog post of 2026! Here, we look back at some of our Center’s highlights in 2025. 

• We developed a policy brief to prevent distracted driving in Iowa ahead of the legislative session and created an educational handout when the state’s hands-free driving law took effect. 

• We promoted injury prevention at the National Senior Games in Des Moines and conducted a survey to identify older adults’ top safety concerns and transportation needs. 

• We created a new Safety webpage, highlighting resources for safety at home; safety in the community; safety at work; and mental health/ emotional safety.  

• We joined our colleagues across the country for the Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs) congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., on the importance of mental health and injury prevention research.  

• We helped develop two new resources for our partners at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services that highlight data on the ‘who, what, where, when, and why’ of Iowa overdose deaths and nonfatal overdose emergency department visits. 

• We served as evaluators for Iowa Health and Human Services older adult falls projects to expand falls prevention programs and support community-clinic linkages across the state. 

• We marked the 6^th annual National Injury Prevention Day with faculty spotlights, a new video, and an Iowa social media toolkit. 

• We helped develop a new state-level action plan with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services that addresses sexual violence in Iowa and serves as a resource to help prevent it before it occurs. 

• We co-sponsored the 9^th annual Occupational Health and Safety Student Research Conference at the College of Public Health and the annual Preventing Childhood Injury Conference in Des Moines. 

• 18 faculty, staff, and students attended the SAVIR conference in New York City to learn the latest research, present their work, and network. 

• We funded new research through our pilot grant program on firearms storage, mental health/ substance disorders in rural emergency departments, and falls prevention programming for older adults. 

• Our Injury Blog featured research on topics such as suicide, road safety, and house fires, and we launched our new e-newsletter and Instagram channel. 

UI IPRC in the news (examples): 

Research shows relaxing driver’s license renewal laws for older drivers leads to more crashes (KCRG News)

Protecting the vulnerable, or automating harm? AI’s double -edged role in spotting abuse (The Conversation)

Iowa bill to ban handheld phones while driving advances (Axios) 

UI IPRC publications (examples): 

Beyond Locks and Lectures: What Rural Parents Think Would Be Effective Firearm Safety Messaging and Programming (Journal of Community Health) 

Improving agricultural injury surveillance: comparing injuries captured by Iowa’s workers’ compensation and trauma registry data (Injury Prevention) 

Mental health and substance use clinical factors associated with emergency department and emergency medical services involvement among decedents of suicide by poisoning (Injury Prevention) 

Secondary undertriage in a rural trauma system: A retrospective study of twice-transferred patients (Journal of Surgical Research) 

On the road to school: A naturalistic study of adolescent bicycle route safety  (Journal of Safety Research)

What’s next in 2026?  Some examples: 

We will: 

• Work with stakeholders in Iowa to examine suicide prevention strategies within law enforcement in Iowa and identify best practices. 

• Welcome David Schwebel, Vice President for Research, at the College of Public Health, for a presentation about injury prevention (March 11, 2026).  

• Launch a Visiting Scholars program with injury centers at the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University. 

• Celebrate 35 years as a CDC Injury Control Research Center! 

We wish everyone a safe and healthy 2026!