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The following is a summary of “Trends in Firearm Injuries Treated in Emergency Departments by Individual- and County-Level Characteristics, 2019 to 2023,” published in the December 2024 issue of Emergency Medicine by Zwald et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine trends in nonfatal firearm injuries by analyzing rates of firearm injury emergency department (ED) visits based on individual- and county-level characteristics.
They analyzed data from EDs in 10 U.S. jurisdictions funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms program, including the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. The study examined trends in firearm injury ED visits from January 2019 to August 2023, stratified by sex, age group, jurisdiction, county-level urbanicity, and county-level social vulnerability. Mean weekly rates of firearm injury ED visits and visit ratios, representing the proportion of firearm-related ED visits compared to all visits during the same period in 2019, were calculated.
The results showed the proportion of firearm injury ED visits was higher each year from 2020 to 2023 compared to 2019, with the largest increase observed in 2020 (visit ratio=1.59). All 10 Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Room jurisdictions experienced a rise in firearm injury ED visit proportions in 2020, with visit ratios ranging from 1.26 in West Virginia to 2.31 in Washington, DC. Additionally, the highest mean weekly rate of firearm injury ED visits was seen in counties with the most significant social vulnerability throughout the study period.
Investigators concluded the communities with higher social vulnerability continue to experience a burden of firearm injuries, emphasizing the need for targeted public health interventions and resource allocation based on timely ED data on social vulnerability.
Source: annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(24)01196-X/abstract
