‘Sobering’ data show increase in pediatric firearm injuries during pandemic
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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Data presented at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition showed an increase in firearm-related injuries among children during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a sharp rise in injuries among Black children.
Co-author Irma T. Ugalde, MD, associate professor and director of pediatric emergency medicine research at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, told Healio that the idea for the study came from the researchers’ experiences working in the ED during the pandemic.
“We noticed more firearm injuries in children in our community, but didn't know the full extent,” Ugalde said. “To understand how to target solutions to mitigate these types of traumas, we needed to approach this scientifically to understand the actual rise and to characterize factors associated with children who were victims of these injuries before and after the pandemic.”
Research has shown that firearm acquisition has increased during the pandemic, and the AAP this week said guns should be regulated like motor vehicles to mitigate the nation’s leading cause of death for people aged 0 to 24 years.
Ugalde and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional retrospective study that analyzed firearm injuries at their trauma center and compared data from 2019 with data from 2020 and 2021. They also utilized their institutional trauma registry, which follows the same classification system as the national trauma registry, and included factors such as zip codes of residence, race, ethnicity, injury characteristics, mechanism of injury, final diagnosis codes, and disposition from the ED.
“We also delved further by investigating social work notes, ED notes, and hospital notes to better characterize risk factors associated with children who are victims of firearm-related injuries,” Ugalde said.
They found that the number of pediatric firearm-related injuries at their trauma center increased from 88 in 2019 to 118 in 2020 and remained elevated at 115 in 2021, and that there was a substantial increase in the proportion of firearm-related injuries involving Black children, from 30.7% in 2019 to 39.8% in 2020 and 47.8% in 2021.
The researchers also found that pediatric firearm injuries increased during the COVID-19 pandemic among patients with mental illness, when the shooter was known friend, when the injuries occurred at home, and when a firearm was left unlocked.
Ugalde called the findings “sobering.”
“We were surprised to see that while Black children made up 30% of all the firearm injuries in children in 2019, that percentage went up yearly so by 2021, they made up 47% of all firearm-related injuries in children at our center,” Ugalde said. “The actual number of Black children [injured by firearms] more than doubled in 2021 compared to 2019.”
Ugalde and colleagues noted in their abstract that increases in pediatric firearm-related injuries in “already vulnerable populations should therefore prompt initiatives and future studies to mitigate the risk of injury and death.” The AAP announced at the conference that such initiatives are underway.
References:
Firearm-related injuries may have increased during COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/966492. Published Oct. 7, 2022. Accessed Oct. 10, 2022.
Ugalde I, et al. Firearm injury epidemiology at a pediatric level 1 trauma center before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Presented at: AAP National Conference & Exhibition; Oct. 7-11, 2022; Anaheim, Calif.
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Ugalde I, et al. Firearm injury epidemiology at a pediatric level 1 trauma center before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Presented at: AAP National Conference & Exhibition; Oct. 7-11, 2022; Anaheim, Calif.
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