Most firearm injuries occur in home zip code, especially among children aged 0 to 10 years<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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MONDAY, March 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Geospatial clusters are seen in pediatric firearm injuries, and most of these incidents occur within the same zip code as the child’s home, according to a study published online March 12 in Pediatrics<\/em>.<\/p>\n Craig D. Newgard, M.D., M.P.H., from the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study from Jan. 1, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2022, to examine spatial clustering of pediatric firearm injuries using national 9-1-1 emergency medical services (EMS) responses for children aged 0 to 17 years in 50 states. Spatial changes were examined over time for 37 states with continuous data over the study period.<\/p>\n The researchers found that there were 10,521,575 9-1-1 EMS responses from 30,393 incident zip codes during the study period, including 26,101 (0.25 percent) for firearm injuries (14.1 and 85.9 percent in children [0 to 10 years] and adolescents [11 to 17 years], respectively). Overall, 80.9 percent of the firearm injuries among 3,679 children occurred in their home zip code and 40.5 percent occurred in a cluster; among 22,422 adolescents with firearm injuries, 69.7 and 51.5 percent occurred in their home zip code and in a cluster, respectively. Among 6,103,297 events in 11,433 zip codes in 37 states, 47.8 and 32.1 percent clustered zip codes were new for children and adolescents, respectively, in 2022; similar results were seen using home zip codes.<\/p>\n “The rate of pediatric firearm injuries and number of hotspots increased over time, with many new zip codes included as hotspots in 2022,” the authors write.<\/p>\n Abstract\/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)<\/a><\/p>\n