Firearm mortality among children youth and young adults 1-34 years of age trends and current status: United States 1979-88 (original) (raw)

Increasing Firearm Deaths in The Youngest Americans: Ecologic Correlation with Firearm Prevalence

2019

Background: In the United States (U.S.), the overall death rate in 1-4 year-olds had been steadily declining until 2014, after which it ceased to improve. To understand this trend reversal, we investigated trends in the causes of their deaths. Methods: Mortality data were obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, firearm background check data from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and civilian firearm prevalence from the Small Arms Survey. Findings: In 1-4 year-olds, the rate of fatal firearm accidents during 2002-2017 increased exponentially at an average rate of 6.0%/year (p=0.0003). The rate of increase was the greatest of all evaluable causes of death in the age group. Both the rate increase and most recent absolute rate in firearm accidental deaths in young children were correlated with the concurrent corresponding rate of firearm background checks (p = 0.0002 and 0.003, respectively). Also, the fire...

Trends in Firearm Injuries Among Children and Teenagers in the United States

Journal of Surgical Research, 2020

Background: Gun violence among children and teenagers in the United States occurs at a magnitude many times that of other industrialized countries. The trends of injury in this age group relative to the adult population are not well studied. This study seeks to measure trends in pediatric firearm injuries in the United States. Methods: Data from the National Trauma Data Bank (2010-2016) were used in selecting patients evaluated for firearm injury. Patients were classified as children and teenagers (<20 y) or adults (20 y). Changes in the proportion of firearm injuries among children and teenagers relative to the overall population (pediatric component) were determined using trend analyses. Results: There were 240,510 firearm injuries with children and teenagers accounting for 45,075 of these injuries (pediatric component of 18.7%). Pediatric firearm injury was mostly among males (87.4%), Blacks (60.7%), and victims of assault (76.0%). The pediatric component of firearm injuries decreased from 21.7% in 2010 to 18.2% in 2016 (P-trend < 0.001). Although there was a decrease from 22.7% to 17.6% in the pediatric component of assault (P-trend < 0.001), there was an increase from 8.7% to 10.1% in the pediatric component of self-inflicted injuries (P-trend ¼ 0.028). Substratification by race/ ethnicity showed decrease in the pediatric component of firearm injuries among all groups (P-trend < 0.001) except Whites (P-trend ¼ 0.847). Conclusions: Despite reductions in the pediatric component of firearm injuries, there remains a significant burden of injury in this group. Continued public health efforts are necessary to ensure safety and reduce firearm injuries among children and teenagers in the United States.

Firearm-Related Injuries Affecting the Pediatric Population

PEDIATRICS, 2012

This statement reaffirms the 1992 position of the American Academy of Pediatrics that the absence of guns from children's homes and communities is the most reliable and effective measure to prevent firearmrelated injuries in children and adolescents. A number of specific measures are supported to reduce the destructive effects of guns in the lives of children and adolescents, including the regulation of the manufacture, sale, purchase, ownership, and use of firearms; a ban on handguns and semiautomatic assault weapons; and expanded regulations of handguns for civilian use. In addition, this statement reviews recent data, trends, prevention, and intervention strategies of the past 5 years.

Firearms, Youth Homicide, and Public Health

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 2012

Homicide is seven times as common among U.S. non-Hispanic Black as among non-Hispanic White youth ages 15 to 24 years. In 83% of these youth homicides, the murder weapon is a firearm. Yet, for more than a decade, the national public health position on youth violence has been largely silent about the role of firearms, and tools used by public health professionals to reduce harm from other potential hazards have been unusable where guns are concerned. This deprives already underserved populations from the full benefits public health agencies might be able to deliver. In part, political prohibitions against research about direct measures of firearm control and the absence of valid public health surveillance are responsible. More refined epidemiologic theories as well as traditional public health methods are needed if the U.S. aims to reduce disparate Black-White youth homicide rates.

Prevention of Firearm Injuries Among Children and Adolescents

JAMA Pediatrics

IMPORTANCE Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of death among US children and adolescents. Because of the lack of resources allocated to firearm injury prevention during the past 25 years, research has lagged behind other areas of injury prevention. Identifying timely and important research questions regarding firearm injury prevention is a critical step for reducing pediatric mortality. OBJECTIVE The Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens (FACTS) Consortium, a National Institute for Child Health and Human Development-funded group of scientists and stakeholders, was formed in 2017 to develop research resources for the field, including a pediatric-specific research agenda for firearm injury prevention to assist future researchers and funders, as well as to inform cross-disciplinary evidence-based research on this critical injury prevention topic. EVIDENCE REVIEW A nominal group technique process was used, including 4 key steps (idea generation, round-robin, clarification, and voting and consensus). During idea generation, stakeholders and workgroups generated initial research agenda topics after conducting scoping reviews of the literature to identify existing gaps in knowledge. Agenda topics were refined through 6 rounds of discussion and survey feedback (ie, round-robin, and clarification steps). Final voting (using a 5-point Likert scale) was conducted to achieve consensus (Ն70% of consortium ranking items at 4 or 5 priority for inclusion) around key research priorities for the next 5 years of research in this field. Final agenda questions were reviewed by both the stakeholder group and an external panel of research experts not affiliated with the FACTS Consortium. Feedback was integrated and the final set of agenda items was ratified by the entire FACTS Consortium. FINDINGS Overall, 26 priority agenda items with examples of specific research questions were identified across 5 major thematic areas, including epidemiology and risk and protective factors, primary prevention, secondary prevention and sequelae, cross-cutting prevention factors, policy, and data enhancement. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE These priority agenda items, when taken together, define a comprehensive pediatric-specific firearm injury prevention research agenda that will guide research resource allocation within this field during the next 5 years.

Family Firearm Ownership and Firearm-Related Mortality Among Young Children: 1976–2016

Pediatrics, 2019

BACKGROUND: Firearm-related fatalities are a top 3 cause of death among children in the United States. Despite historical declines in firearm ownership, the firearm-related mortality rate among young children has risen over the past decade. In this study, we examined changes in firearm ownership among families with young children from 1976 to 2016, exploring how such changes relate to recent increases in firearm-related mortality among 1- to 5-year-olds. METHODS: Individual-level data from the National Vital Statistics System were merged with household-level data from the General Social Survey to create national-level estimates of firearm-related child mortality and family firearm ownership from 1976 to 2016 (n = 41 years). Vector autoregression models were used to examine the association between firearm ownership and child mortality. RESULTS: The proportion of non-Hispanic white families with young children who owned firearms declined from 50% in 1976 to 45% in 2016 and from 38% to...