Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers

OBJECTIVES: The onset of the national stay-at-home orders accompanied by a surge in firearm sales has elevated the concerns of clinicians and public health authorities. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the stay-at-home orders among gunshot wound (GSW) trauma admissions. METHODS...

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Autores principales: McGraw, Constance, Jarvis, Stephanie, Carrick, Matthew, Lieser, Mark, Madayag, Robert M, Berg, Gina M, Banton, Kaysie L, Hamilton, David, Bar-Or, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8753110/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35039797
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2021-000801
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author McGraw, Constance
Jarvis, Stephanie
Carrick, Matthew
Lieser, Mark
Madayag, Robert M
Berg, Gina M
Banton, Kaysie L
Hamilton, David
Bar-Or, David
author_facet McGraw, Constance
Jarvis, Stephanie
Carrick, Matthew
Lieser, Mark
Madayag, Robert M
Berg, Gina M
Banton, Kaysie L
Hamilton, David
Bar-Or, David
author_sort McGraw, Constance
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: The onset of the national stay-at-home orders accompanied by a surge in firearm sales has elevated the concerns of clinicians and public health authorities. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the stay-at-home orders among gunshot wound (GSW) trauma admissions. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study at six level I trauma centers across four states. Patients admitted after the onset of COVID-19 restrictions (March 16, 2020–June 30, 2020) were compared with those admitted during the same period in 2019. We compared (1) rate of patients with GSW and (2) characteristics of patients with GSW, by period using Χ(2) tests or Fisher’s exact tests, as appropriate. RESULTS: There were 6996 trauma admissions across the study period; 3707 (53%) in 2019 and 3289 (47%) in 2020. From 2019 to 2020, there was a significant increase in GSW admissions (4% vs. 6%, p=0.001); 4 weeks specifically had significant increases (March 16–March 23: 4%, April 1–April 8: 5%, April 9–April 16: 6%, and May 11–May 18: 5%). Of the 334 GSWs, there were significant increases in patients with mental illness (5% vs. 11%, p=0.03), alcohol use disorder (2% vs. 10%, p=0.003), substance use disorder (11% vs. 25%, p=0.001), and a significant decrease in mortality (14% vs. 7%, p=0.03) in 2020. No other significant differences between time periods were identified. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that trauma centers admitted significantly more patients with GSW following the national guidelines, including an increase in those with mental illness and substance use-related disorders. This could be attributable to the stay-at-home orders. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective study.
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spelling pubmed-87531102022-01-13 Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers McGraw, Constance Jarvis, Stephanie Carrick, Matthew Lieser, Mark Madayag, Robert M Berg, Gina M Banton, Kaysie L Hamilton, David Bar-Or, David Trauma Surg Acute Care Open Brief Report OBJECTIVES: The onset of the national stay-at-home orders accompanied by a surge in firearm sales has elevated the concerns of clinicians and public health authorities. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the stay-at-home orders among gunshot wound (GSW) trauma admissions. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study at six level I trauma centers across four states. Patients admitted after the onset of COVID-19 restrictions (March 16, 2020–June 30, 2020) were compared with those admitted during the same period in 2019. We compared (1) rate of patients with GSW and (2) characteristics of patients with GSW, by period using Χ(2) tests or Fisher’s exact tests, as appropriate. RESULTS: There were 6996 trauma admissions across the study period; 3707 (53%) in 2019 and 3289 (47%) in 2020. From 2019 to 2020, there was a significant increase in GSW admissions (4% vs. 6%, p=0.001); 4 weeks specifically had significant increases (March 16–March 23: 4%, April 1–April 8: 5%, April 9–April 16: 6%, and May 11–May 18: 5%). Of the 334 GSWs, there were significant increases in patients with mental illness (5% vs. 11%, p=0.03), alcohol use disorder (2% vs. 10%, p=0.003), substance use disorder (11% vs. 25%, p=0.001), and a significant decrease in mortality (14% vs. 7%, p=0.03) in 2020. No other significant differences between time periods were identified. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that trauma centers admitted significantly more patients with GSW following the national guidelines, including an increase in those with mental illness and substance use-related disorders. This could be attributable to the stay-at-home orders. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective study. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-01-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8753110/ /pubmed/35039797 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2021-000801 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Brief Report
McGraw, Constance
Jarvis, Stephanie
Carrick, Matthew
Lieser, Mark
Madayag, Robert M
Berg, Gina M
Banton, Kaysie L
Hamilton, David
Bar-Or, David
Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers
title Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers
title_full Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers
title_fullStr Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers
title_full_unstemmed Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers
title_short Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers
title_sort examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the covid-19 pandemic across six trauma centers
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8753110/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35039797
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2021-000801
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