Abstract
In the US, approximately 40 000 people die due to firearm-related injuries annually. However, nonfatal firearm-related injuries are less precisely tracked. To assess the annual incidence of hospitalization for nonfatal firearm-related injuries in New York and to compare the annual incidence by sex, race/ethnicity, county of residence, and calendar years. This retrospective cross-sectional study used data from the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System for patients aged 15 years or older who presented to an emergency department in New York with nonfatal firearm-related injuries from January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2016. Data were analyzed from January 15, 2019, to April 21, 2021. A nonfatal firearm-related injury, defined by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification and International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. The annual incidence of nonfatal firearm-related injuries was calculated by determining the number of patients with a nonfatal firearm-related injury each year divided by the total population of New York. The study included 31 060 unique patients with 35 059 hospital encounters for nonfatal firearm-related injuries. The mean (SD) age at admission was 28.5 (11.9) years; most patients were male (90.6%) and non-Hispanic Black individuals (62.0%). The overall annual incidence was 18.4 per 100 000 population. Although decreasing trends of annual incidence were observed across the state during the study period, this trend was not present in all 62 counties, with 32 counties (51.6%) having an increase in the incidence of injuries between 2005 and 2010 and 29 (46.8%) having an increase in the incidence of injuries between 2010 and 2015. In 19 of the 30 counties (63.3%) that had a decrease in incidence in earlier years, the incidence increased in later years. The annual incidence of hospitalization for nonfatal firearm-related injuries in New York during the study period was 18.4 per 100 000 population. Reliable tracking of nonfatal firearm-related injury data may be useful for policy makers, hospital systems, community organizers, and public health officials as they consider resource allocation for trauma systems and injury prevention programs.
Highlights
In the US, approximately 40 000 people die due to firearm-related injuries each year.[1]
Decreasing trends of annual incidence were observed across the state during the study period, this trend was not present in all 62 counties, with 32 counties (51.6%) having an increase in the incidence of injuries between 2005 and 2010 and 29 (46.8%) having an increase in the incidence of injuries between 2010 and 2015
Reliable tracking of nonfatal firearm-related injury data may be useful for policy makers, hospital systems, community organizers, and public health officials as they consider resource allocation for trauma systems and injury prevention programs
Summary
In the US, approximately 40 000 people die due to firearm-related injuries each year.[1]. One study suggested that this area of investigation receives 1.6% of expected research funding compared with other leading causes of death.[3] This lack of investment is apparent in the absence of infrastructure to reliably track nonfatal firearm-related injuries. Deaths are publicly reported and reliably described, national data on nonfatal firearm-related injuries are limited.[4] For example, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 133 895 (95% CI, 31 329-236 461) nonfatal firearm-related injuries occurred in 20175—an estimate so imprecise as to render it unhelpful in understanding the scope of this problem This lack of precision was the result of using a small number of hospitals to derive the estimates, which have been increasingly imprecise over time.[6] More recently, the CDC deemed the nonfatal firearm-related injury data so unreliable that the estimates are no longer publicly available.[5] Without reliable data, it is challenging to understand the scope of the problem, to develop prevention strategies, and to track their effectiveness
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