Ranking second only to car crashes as a cause of death for adolescents, gunshot injuries are a major cause of injury for kids in the US. And now, a new study reveals that gunshot wounds have a greater mortality rate and higher costs than any other reason for childhood injury.
Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) partnered with scientists from the University of California, Davis, to complete a population-based cohort study, which looked at data from 3 years, spanning January 2006 to December 2008.
The team reviewed information from 47 emergency medical services agencies linked to 93 hospitals in five regions of the western US. There were a total of 49,983 injured children who needed emergency help, including 505 children with gunshot injuries, the majority of whom were males aged 15 to 19 years old.
The results of the study were published online in the journal Pediatrics.
Dr. Craig Newgard, lead investigator from OHSU, says:
“There has been little science and lots of misinformation cited on the topic of gunshot injuries in children. This study was intended to add some objective data to the conversation.”
Researchers investigated the number and severity of injuries, the type of hospital interventions, deaths and costs for each patient in children with gunshot injuries.
They then compared this data with that of children whose injuries arose from other means, including being stabbed, hit by a car, hit with a blunt object, falls and car crashes.
The researchers found that children injured by gunshot had the most serious injuries. They also had the most major surgeries, in-hospital deaths and per-patient costs – $28,000 per patient – compared with children who were injured by other means.
Dr. Nathan Kuppermann, co-author of the study from UC Davis Medical Center, says:
“While children with gunshot wounds made up only 1% of the sample, they accounted for more than 20% of deaths following injury and a disproportionate share of hospital costs.
He notes that because they used data from five different regions in the Western Emergency Services Translational Research Network, he and his team were able to study a “large enough sample size to assess the physical and financial impact of gunshot injuries in children.”
Though most studies on childhood gunshot injuries have only looked at mortality, the researchers say this study is one of only a few to include a wider number of children affected by gunshot injuries.
They conclude their study by noting that although gunshot injuries are not as common as other types of injuries, they represent a “disproportionate burden of adverse outcomes in children,” and the team notes that this is particularly true in older adolescent males.
Public health, injury prevention and other health policy solutions are now needed, the researchers say, in order to reduce childhood gunshot injuries and the resulting health consequences.
Medical News Today recently reported on a study that suggested countries with higher levels of gun ownership are not safer than those with lower levels.