Guns now the top cause of pediatric deaths

Abstract

With pediatric firearm deaths increasing in 2021, above the spike in 2020, it's critical to implement prevention strategies and policies, especially among communities at highest risk, researchers warned in the September issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2020, firearm injuries became the leading cause of death among U.S. children and adolescents. A new study looked at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data on deaths of children and adolescents from 2018 to 2021. The researchers found that from 2018 to 2021, there was a 41.6% increase in the firearm death rate; 84.8% of the children who died by firearms were male, 49.9% were Black, 82.6% were aged 15 to 19 years, and 64.3% died by homicide. Black children accounted for 67.3% of firearm homicides; white children accounted for 78.4% of firearm suicides. [Roberts, B. K., Nofi, C. P., Cornell, E., et al. (2023, Sep 1). Trends and disparities in firearm deaths among children. Pediatrics, 152(3), e2023061296. http://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2023‐061296.]