Trends in Nonfatal and Fatal Firearm-Related Injury Rates in the United States, 1985–1995☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
In 1993, firearm-related injuries ranked second to motor vehicle-related injuries as the leading cause of injury death in the United States, taking 39,595 lives.1, 2 From 1968 to 1993, the number of motor vehicle-related deaths steadily declined, whereas the number of firearm-related deaths increased.1, 3 If those trends continue, firearm-related injuries are predicted to replace motor-vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury death in the United States by the year 2001 (based on an
METHODS
Data were collected for all gun-related injuries treated in NEISS hospital EDs during the 3-year study period (June 1, 1992, through May 31, 1995). Study data were obtained through an ongoing agreement between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and CPSC.
NEISS comprises 91 hospitals selected as a stratified probability sample of all hospitals in the United States and its territories that have at least six beds and provide 24-hour emergency care. Hospital size, specified by the
RESULTS
A total of 9,401 cases of nonfatal firearm-related injury were recorded in the NEISS system from June 1, 1992, through May 31, 1995. Summing of the sample weights of these cases produced a national estimate of 288,538 (95% CI, 169,776 to 407,300) nonfatal firearm-related injuries treated in US hospital EDs during the 3-year study period. The overall annual rate of nonfatal firearm-related injury increased slightly between the period from June 1992 through May 1993 (38.8/100,000 [95% CI, 22.8 to
DISCUSSION
In this report, we present annual estimates of nonfatal firearm-related injuries treated in US EDs for the 3-year study period, June 1992 through May 1995. We also examine and compare trends in the quarterly rates of nonfatal and fatal firearm-related injury in the total US population and in the US male population aged 15 to 24 years.
Our data provide further evidence that firearm-related injuries and deaths are beginning to decline in the United States.6, 22 The annual number of nonfatal
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our thanks and appreciation to Art McDonald, director, and Eileen Kessler, statistician and project officer, Division of Hazard and Injury Data Systems, and other staff of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission for their diligence in providing high-quality surveillance data on nonfatal firearm-related injuries using the NEISS. We also thank Mr Steve James for his assistance in data preparation and Dr George Ryan for statistical consultation at the National Center for
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From the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
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Reprint no. 47/1/90751
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Address for reprints: Joseph L Annest, PhD, Director, Office of Statistics and Programming, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy, NE, MS/K59, Atlanta, GA 30341-3724, 770-488-4804, Fax 770-488-1665