Editorial

In this issue, we bring a wide range of research articles representing both thematic and geographical spread. There are many new research initiatives that carry clear signals to policy makers and implementing authorities. It has long been an accepted fact that most developing countries rely on police reports for official road traffic injury statistics even though there is evidence of police under-reporting especially for non-fatal injury data. Lack of reliable data prevents the formulation of safety and health policy initiatives at country level on fatal and non-fatal injuries. Bhalla et al. present a methodology that fills this yawning gap in a pioneering article by piecing together data from a wide variety of sources including death registries, hospital records, funeral records, health surveys, and police reports. Bhalla, Naghavi, Shahraz, Bartels, & Murry (2009) demonstrated the process of building a national estimate of the incidence of road traffic injuries from available data resources in Iran. The methodology is generalised to a wider array of data sources that may exist in other countries.

While violence among married or cohabiting couples has been extensively studied, we carry the first study of its kind, regarding the incidence of violence among young dating couples in Chile. The results make a compelling case for not neglecting the effects of daily violence. The authors (Lehrer et al.) hope that this and other such studies would make the case for effective and educative interventions to prevent future violence in adulthood.

In our last issue, we mentioned that the safety of children is an under-researched aspect of health and wellness; it is a topic we would do well to examine at length. As part of this general intention, the present issue carries four articles that relate to risk perception and injury prevention among children.

Bruce et al. have studied children with ADHD and have shown how such children tend to have an exaggerated sense of their own abilities, which means they take risks which other children shy away from. Moran et al. look into the parent/caregiver perceptions of risk and safety for their children on the beach; the study points out that men, unlike women, seem to have a higher opinion of their skills in swimming and rescue work. The study reports lack of supervision; more than one quarter of adults reported that they did not stay close to their younger children in the water. Almost half separated from their younger children on the beach. The study highlights the need to focus on the necessity for caution when estimating caregiver and children's ability to cope with open water conditions. The article from Canada examines the use of child safety restraints in cars. The findings suggest that the impact of booster-seat legislation on their correct use by parents and children requires further evaluation and that Canada has not yet reached its target of 95% correct use of car safety belts. The article from Sweden posits a fresh relationship between traffic safety behaviour and place of residence (size of community); seat belt use (highly regulated), bicycle helmet use (loosely regulated), and use of reflectors (totally unregulated) by pedestrians/cyclists are the three main items taken up for study. The results emphasise the importance of considering place of residence to explain varying risks to young people with regard to traffic crashes; however, this is one of many factors that may influence young people's traffic safety behaviour.

Shankar et al. present a rarely studied phenomenon – epidemiology of Cleistanthus collinus (oduvan) poisoning, which is a common suicidal poisoning method used in rural southern India. This is the first study of its kind that examines the epidemiology of oduvan poisoning in a large sample highlighting the role of baseline characteristics and time-varying co-variates such as plasma potassium levels, which enabled the authors to identify the risk factors for mortality.

We sincerely hope that these pointers and leads will help bridge the gap between theory and practice. As always, we look forward to your suggestions and comments on all issues relating to injury control and safety promotion to make our journal relevant and practical in every part of the world where a lack of safety is present.