Relationships between socioeconomic deprivation and pediatric firearm-related injury at the neighborhood level.

Abstract

Disparities in pediatric injury are widely documented and partly driven by differential exposures to social determinants of health (SDH). Here, we examine associations between neighborhood-level SDH and pediatric firearm-related injury admissions as a step to defining specific targets for interventions to prevent injury. We conducted a retrospective review of patients 16 years or younger admitted to our Level I pediatric trauma center (2010-2019) after a firearm-related injury. We extracted patients' demographic characteristics and intent of injury. We geocoded home addresses to enable quantification of injury-related admissions at the neighborhood (census tract) level. Our population-level exposure variable was a socioeconomic deprivation index for each census tract. Of 15,686 injury-related admissions, 140 were for firearm-related injuries (median age, 14 years; interquartile range, 11-15 years). Patients with firearm-related injuries were 75% male and 64% Black; 66% had public insurance. Nearly half (47%) of firearm-related injuries were a result of assault, 32% were unintentional, and 6% were self-inflicted; 9% died. At the neighborhood level, the distribution of firearm-related injuries significantly differed by deprivation quintile ( p < 0.05). Children from the highest deprivation quintile experienced 25% of injuries of all types, 57% of firearm-related injuries, and 70% of all firearm-related injuries from assault. They had an overall risk of firearm-related injury 30 times that of children from the lowest deprivation quintile. Increased neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation is associated with more firearm-related injuries requiring hospitalization, at rates far higher than injury-related admissions overall. Addressing neighborhood-level SDH may help prevent pediatric firearm-related injury. Prognostic and epidemiological, Level III.