| The COVID-19 pandemic has forced health systems around the world to address the fundamental meaning of disease prevention and harm reduction. While global attention has been focused on this unprecedented pandemic, in the US there has been an accelerated shift over the past decade in the leading cause of death among children and adolescents ages 0-19. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released in 2022, firearms are the leading cause of death among young people in the US) and a progressive decline in vehicle deaths engine (51% decrease since 2000). The increase in gun deaths is largely due to the increase in gun homicides, as nearly 60% of gun deaths among youth since 2010 were homicides. |
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Firearms are now the leading cause of death for children and adolescents ages 0 to 19, with a staggering 83 percent increase in youth firearm deaths over the past decade, according to a commentary published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health . Nearly two-thirds of youth gun deaths were due to homicides. Shockingly, young Black men had an unprecedented 40 percent increase in gun deaths between 2019 and 2020.
These tragic statistics come in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Texas earlier this week, signaling the urgent need to take action to prevent more young people from being killed by guns.
"We must reverse this deeply disturbing and unacceptable trend in youth firearm deaths, especially among youth of color," said co-author Karen Sheehan, MD, MPH, pediatric emergency physician and medical director of the Patrick M. Magoon Institute. for Healthy Communities at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Professor of Pediatrics, Medical Education and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We need more funding allocated to research-based prevention efforts so we can save young lives before it is too late.”
The authors also note that although firearm death rates began to rise in 2014, the dramatic social upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic likely accelerated this increase with escalating mental health stressors and existential despair. experienced by young people. The seismic shift in young people’s lives during the pandemic occurred against the backdrop of a decades-long gap in prevention efforts to reduce gun injuries and deaths.
After Congress passed the Dickey Amendment in 1996, federal funding of firearms research effectively stopped, until 2019, when $25 million in research funds were allocated. This pales in comparison to research funding for other pediatric diseases and does not meet current needs to advance the field.
Congress has continued to fund firearms research at this same level for the past three years, while studies estimate $600 million should be allocated in fiscal years 2022-2026 for data infrastructure and research funding for research prevention of injuries from firearms.
"In addition to better understanding the risk and protective factors for firearm injuries and deaths, it is essential to have more funding to develop, implement and evaluate firearm injury prevention interventions at the individual, hospital, and community levels." and normative," said co-author Samaa. Kemal, MD, MPH, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow at Lurie Children’s.
Research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. The Manne Research Institute is focused on improving children’s health, transforming pediatric medicine, and ensuring a healthier future through the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Lurie Children’s is ranked one of the best children’s hospitals in the country by US News & World Report. It is the pediatric training camp for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Research focused on emergency medicine at Lurie Children’s is conducted through the Grainger Research Program in Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
