Yale School of Medicine researchers say that at least one child is seriously injured every hour by gunshots and 6 percent of them succumb to their injuries.
Gun-related violence is most common in poor urban areas and frequently associated with gang violence, often involving male juveniles or young adult males. Gun violence is a sensitive political issue hotly debated in the United States. The Yale School of Medicine researchers conducted a new study on the impact of gun violence on children and were surprised by their findings.
About one American child is seriously injured by gunshots every hour a day, which adds to 24 injured children a day and approximately 10,000 a year. According to a press statement, about 6 percent of these children succumb to their injuries and die.
For the study, researchers collected data of children and adolescents younger than age 20 at the time of admission to hospitals in 2009. They found that a total of 7,391 individuals from this age group were hospitalized due to firearm injuries, of which 453 victims died. Researchers also noted that 4,559 of these hospitalizations were the direct consequence of assaults. Also, among the 400 children under the age of 10 that were hospitalized, 75 percent were victims of unintentional or accidental incidents.
The most common types of firearm injuries included open wounds (52%); fractures (50%); and internal injuries of the thorax, abdomen or pelvis (34%).
"These data highlight the toll of gun-related injuries that extends beyond high-profile cases, and those children and adolescents who die before being hospitalized. Pediatricians and other health care providers can play an important role in preventing these injuries through counseling about firearm safety, including safe storage," said John Leventhal, lead author of the study.
Leventhal and his team also found that children under the age of 5 mostly suffered traumatic brain injuries and required extensive follow-up treatment once released from the hospital.
The study was funded by the child abuse programs in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and published in the online issue of Pediatrics.
