356 - Guns and Children

Poster Number: 356
Publication Number: 356.313

Suzannah Swan, CCMC, West Hartford, CT, United States; Amy Hunter, UConn Health, Farmington, CT, United States; Mary-Kate Nowobilski, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford, CT, United States; J. Leslie Knod, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, hartford, CT, United States; Sharon Smith, Connecticut Children's Medical Center/UConn, Canton, CT, United States

Background: Firearm violence comprises a large percentage of pediatric injuries within the United States. Among all high-income countries, 91% of childhood firearm deaths occur in US children younger than 14 years. Coronavirus-19 Pandemic is associated with increased firearm violence, but little is known about the impact on children.

Objective: To evaluate the pediatric rates of firearm-related injuries within the state of Connecticut (CT) before- and during-COVID.

Design/Methods: Data was abstracted from the Connecticut Health Information Management Exchange (CHIME) datasets from 2016-2020. All cases of firearm related injuries were identified by ICD -10 codes. Two study groups were created using events occurring in 2018 and 2019 (before-COVID) and events occurring in 2020 (during COVID). Before and during COVID groups were compared to assess differences in rates of injuries and any associations by age, sex, race, cause of injury, bodily location of injury, and geographic location of event.  

Results: A total of 188 encounters were identified. The mean age was 14 years (SD+/- 3.5), 20% girls, 80% boys, 43% White, 37% Black, and 12% Hispanic. The overall rate of firearm injuries before COVID was 1.6 per 100,000 and during COIVD was 2.1/100,000 (p < 0.01). Adjusting for population changes, the incidence of firearm injuries in CT increased by 33%. White and Black children accounted for similar proportion of injuries in all time periods. In all years, about 80% were unintentional while half were injured in suburban areas compared to urban and rural (p=0.97). Almost half of all injuries involved an extremity.  Conclusion(s): The proportion of children with firearm related injuries significantly increased during COVID compared to the preceding two years. The age, sex and race/ethnicity of injured children was similar before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unintentional injury accounted for the majority of injuries. Overall, the proportion of White and Black children injured by firearms was similar, and children living in suburban areas were injured more than other areas.
Demographic Results*** (N, ) = percentage of the total cases, rounded to the nearest whole number