Emergency room visits for firearm injuries among children doubled during the pandemic

CNN
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Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, America’s gun epidemic has become deadlier than ever for children, with firearm-related injuries sending children to the emergency room. The proportion of people who do so is significantly higher than before.

Pediatric emergency department visits for firearm injuries have doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

From 2017 to early 2020, there were approximately 18 firearm-related visits every 30 days, but during the pandemic, the number jumped to 36 visits every 30 days from March 2020 to November 2022. The analysis was based on data from nine participating urban hospitals. Research registry supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“In fact, no child in this country is at increased risk of firearm violence,” said Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, lead author of the study. He is a physician in pediatric emergency medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

But the increase was especially pronounced among black and Hispanic children, she said, widening already existing disparities. Approximately two-thirds of emergency department visits with firearm injuries during the pandemic were children from the most disadvantaged communities.

Hoffman said emergency department data on injury intent is prone to misclassification, but other studies have shown that increases in firearm-related visits may be due to a combination of accidental injuries, self-harm, and child assault. This suggests that there is a high

“Many factors contributed to the increase in childhood gun injuries early in the pandemic. At one point, there was an increase in firearm purchases, economic uncertainty, and increased concerns about children’s mental health. “I did,” she said. Once some of those early stressors eased, schools reopened, and life began to normalize, some experts expected trends to improve.

Instead, “there was a fairly dramatic increase right at the start of the pandemic, followed by high levels of firearm injuries,” Hoffman said.

policy statement A paper published last year by the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasized the importance of using harm reduction strategies to protect children from firearm-related injuries and deaths. Some recommendations include guidance for safer firearm storage in the home, counseling for children at risk of self-harm and their families, and community-based violence intervention programs, including included.

Another study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics found that nearly 1 in 8 children killed by gun homicide had been exposed to intimate partner violence. Most of these children were victims of conflicts between adults, including intimate partner violence and the murder of their mothers. Some teens were murdered by current or former partners.

The study collected 20 years of data from 2002 to 2020 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System.

In a related commentary, Dr. Maya Raghavan and Dr. Alison Kaliba of the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh label intimate partner violence an “urgent pediatric health epidemic” and compare homicides due to interpersonal violence to firearms and emphasized the relevance of

Similar to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ policy statement, they emphasized the urgent need for a “public health approach focused on evidence-based policy and practice.”

“Health care, community, and policy-level solutions are essential to protect IPV survivors and their children and promote family-centered flourishing,” they wrote.