Trends in Firearm Injuries Treated in Emergency Departments by Individual- and County-Level Characteristics, 2019 to 2023.

Abstract

Study objective: To understand trends in nonfatal firearm injuries by examining rates of firearm injury emergency department (ED) visits stratified by individual- and county-level characteristics.

Methods: Data from participating EDs within 10 jurisdictions in the United States funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms program, including the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia, were analyzed. We examined trends in firearm injury ED visits by sex, age group, jurisdiction, county-level urbanicity, and county-level social vulnerability from January 2019 to August 2023. Mean weekly rates of firearm injury ED visits and visit ratios (or the proportion of firearm injury-related ED visits of all visits during the surveillance periods with the same period in 2019) were calculated.

Results: Compared with 2019, the proportion of ED visits for firearm injury was elevated each year during 2020 to 2023 overall, with the largest observed increase in 2020 (visit ratio=1.59). All 10 Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms jurisdictions experienced an increase in the proportion of firearm injury ED visits in 2020 (visit ratios ranging from 1.26 in West Virginia and 2.31 in Washington, DC) when compared with 2019. By county-level social vulnerability, the mean weekly rate of firearm injury ED visits was highest in counties with the highest social vulnerability over the entire study period.

Conclusion: Results highlight the continued burden of firearm injuries in communities with higher social vulnerability. Timely ED data by community social vulnerability can inform public health interventions and resource allocation at local, state, and national levels.