Our Impact on Injury and Violence Prevention

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) prevention impact

The Injury Center is the leader in ACEs prevention and mitigation efforts. We drive data to action to create safe, stable, and nurturing environments for all children. We have a legacy of successful initiatives that have built the framework and infrastructure for our newest investments. Our work includes:

• Funding 12 recipients for the Preventing ACEs: Data to Action program to improve states' data collection capabilities and implementation of prevention strategies.
• Funding two tribal nations to bolster their surveillance of ACEs and positive childhood experiences (PCEs), enabling culturally informed data-to-action.
• Tracking ACEs and health outcomes through state and national-level surveys.
  • As of 2020, all states have collected data on ACEs among adults at least once.
  • Since 2021, 33 states, 15 cities/counties, and 1 tribal nation have collected state- and local-level ACEs data directly from adolescents.
• Publishing the largest population-based assessment of PCEs among U.S. adults, documenting substantial differences reported experiences across race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and adult educational attainment and income.

Overdose prevention impact

Injury Center scientists first published data on the growing epidemic of opioid overdose in 2006. Since then, we have been at the forefront of tracking the complex and changing nature of the drug overdose epidemic and implementing proven prevention strategies. New CDC data show that the U.S. age-adjusted drug overdose death rate dropped by about 26% from 2023 to 2024. This is the biggest decline in the past decade, and it continues a downward trend that started in 2022. Activities include the following:

• Awarded 5-year cooperative agreements in 2023 under two distinct Overdose Data to Action programs to reduce drug overdoses and the impact of related harms.
  • Funded 90 jurisdictions–49 states, 40 localities, and the District of Columbia.
  • Successes include using real-time information from drug samples to understand local drug supply and tailored local overdose prevention education and programming.
• Administered the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program—the nation's leading effort to mobilize communities to prevent and reduce substance use among teens.
  • Funded more than 500 DFCs in the United States in 2025.
  • Met the goal of significant declines in youth use/misuse of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and prescription drugs among DFC coalitions in 2024.
• Overdose Response Strategy (ORS): CDC works with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program on the Overdose Response Strategy, an unprecedented national network of public health and public safety officers in all 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The program works to share information, disrupt the illegal drug supply, and protect people from overdose.

Suicide prevention impact

Suicide remains a leading cause of death in the United States and requires urgent public health action. The Injury Center is working toward a vision of "no lives lost to suicide" by prioritizing data, science, action, and collaboration. Our Suicide Prevention Resource for Action guides our work. We use a whole-of-society approach to suicide prevention. Our work includes:

• Reducing suicide among groups with high and/or increasing rates of suicide like middle-aged adults, children and teens, veterans, and tribal communities through Comprehensive Suicide Prevention strategies.
  • Our most recent analysis indicates that between 2019 and 2023, suicide rates across Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program sites (n=24) decreased by an average of 3.3%. During the same period, the US national average crude suicide rate increased 1.7%.
• Funding 24 programs and supporting 4 tribes in implementing comprehensive public health approaches to suicide prevention.
• Collecting near-real-time data from emergency departments on suicide related visits (including suicidal ideation and attempts) from 20 recipients. These data help states respond to suicide clusters and track trends in suicidal behavior among populations with high and/or increasing rates of suicide.

Violence prevention impact

Violence is an urgent public health problem. Our goal is to stop violence before it begins. Prevention requires understanding the factors that influence violence. The Injury Center supports research, programs, and practices that reduce violence and its health and social consequences. Our violence prevention work includes:

• Collecting data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to CDC's National Violence Death Reporting System to help define public health priorities, develop and evaluate programs and policies, and research state-level violent deaths.
• Strengthening nationwide capacity to prevent sexual violence by providing, tools, training, and technical assistance to state and territorial health departments in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as to state, territorial, and tribal sexual assault coalitions.
• Funding 13 state domestic violence coalition recipients to decrease risk factors and increase protective factors related to intimate partner violence.
• Advancing public health practice by awarding continuing education credits to over 3,000 users in 2025 and receiving nearly 1.2 million page views on the VetoViolence website.
  

Injury prevention impact

Unintentional and self-directed injuries are a leading cause of death in the United States. The Injury Center's mission is to prevent injuries by connecting data, science, and action with these initiatives:

• Studying effective strategies to prevent injuries and violence with 11 Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs) community partners to ensure their research findings translate into practical actions and interventions.
• Funding 26 states through the Core State Injury Prevention Program (Core SIPP) to prioritize the prevention of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), traumatic brain injuries, transportation-related injuries, and other injury topics that are of local concern.
• Partnering to implement strategies to prevent drowning, the number one cause of death for children ages 1-4 and the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children ages 5-14, by addressing barriers to accessing basic swimming and water safety skills training, and collecting data to understand drowning risk.
• Preventing older adult falls, the leading cause of unintentional injury and injury death for Americans ages 65 years and older, by raising awareness with education campaigns and providing tools and resources for health care professionals to make fall prevention a routine part of clinical care.
• Preventing traumatic brain injury (TBI), a major cause of death and disability for people of all ages, and improving health outcomes for survivors of TBI by building education initiatives and trainings, conducting surveillance and research, and releasing guidelines on TBI identification and management.
• Preventing injury and death from motor vehicle crashes, a leading cause of death in the United States, through education and intervention; providing state-specific data, resources, and proven strategies to help state decision makers select effective ways to reduce motor vehicle crash deaths.

Leading causes of death

Watch an animation of the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. for ages 1-44 from 1981-2024.