The review article "Pediatric Firearm-Related Injuries in the United States" in this issue of Hospital Pediatrics serves as a timely reminder for all health care providers that we cannot afford to be silent about gun violence. An average of 7 children and teens ages 1 to 19 are killed by guns every day in the United States. 1 Pediatric hospitalists are on the front lines of this public health crisis. To uphold our duty as pediatricians to protect and improve the health of children, we must educate ourselves about gun violence and become vocal advocates for sensible, effective solutions. Although firearm safety has been highly politicized, we as physicians know that this is first and foremost a public health issue. Many analogies can be drawn from history. When motor vehicle collisions became a leading cause of mortality, auto manufacturers blamed collisions on the drivers. When evidence emerged regarding the health threat of tobacco, tobacco companies denied the association of cigarette smoke with disease. After hard-fought battles with these industries, regulations were put in place that dramatically decreased morbidity and mortality from these public health threats. 2 It is clearly time to do the same for firearms. As with automobile and tobacco regulations, our advocacy must be a pragmatic one. Pediatricians must understand patient and family values and concerns regarding gun ownership. Pediatricians must be able to communicate the risks of firearm ownership to families and children, address controversies and myths, and understand which interventions have been demonstrated by existing data to be most effective in decreasing injury and death. We must understand federal law and the laws in states where we practice. In this commentary, we present a guideline for pragmatic firearm advocacy for pediatricians: key firearm facts that all pediatricians should know, common myths about firearms, interventions that have been proven effective in decreasing firearm injuries and fatalities, a checklist for hospital pediatricians to follow at discharge, and pragmatic advocacy actions we as physicians can take to address this public health epidemic. PEDIATRIC FIREARM INJURIES AND DEATHS: 3 KEY FACTS Firearm Deaths Are Now Tied With Automobile Accidents as the Number 1 Cause of Death for Children Ages 1 to 19 in the United States Firearms account for .30 000 US deaths per year, of which ∼∼3000 (10%) are in children. This statistic translates into ∼7 deaths per day. Although injury (unintentional and intentional) has always accounted for the largest proportion of pediatric mortality, motor vehicle fatalities historically have been the major injury mechanism causing death in children. However, trends in mortality have changed, and recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2014 and 2015 show firearm and motor vehicle fatality rates are converging. In 2015 the firearm death rate was 11.01 and the motor vehicle death rate was 11.83 per 10 000 people. Also, 95% of firearm
This paper is based on a small study of women resident in caravan parks. The study, undertaken in the context of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, explored the health status and the health seeking behavior of women living in mobile homes in two townships in north coast New South Wales, Australia. Older women had moved to park accommodation, some with husbands, to escape the financial strains of maintaining larger homes on fixed incomes. Younger women, in contrast, typically moved to the parks alone or with children but without an adult partner, and were motivated to move from more permanent housing as a result of financial hardship, domestic violence, and their own or partners' drug and alcohol abuse. We had hypothesized some differences in women's health status and health related behavior according to place of residence, because of the differences in the two townships with respect to infrastructure and social characteristics. However, women's health status varied primarily according to age. Women believed they were physically healthy, although with some dental, sexual and particularly mental health problems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.