Skip to main content

Geospatial Clustering Seen in Pediatric Firearm Injuries

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on March 18, 2025.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 17, 2025 -- Geospatial clusters are seen in pediatric firearm injuries, and most of these incidents occur within the same zip code as the child's home, according to a study published online March 12 in Pediatrics.

Craig D. Newgard, M.D., M.P.H., from the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study from Jan. 1, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2022, to examine spatial clustering of pediatric firearm injuries using national 9-1-1 emergency medical services (EMS) responses for children aged 0 to 17 years in 50 states. Spatial changes were examined over time for 37 states with continuous data over the study period.

The researchers found that there were 10,521,575 9-1-1 EMS responses from 30,393 incident zip codes during the study period, including 26,101 (0.25 percent) for firearm injuries (14.1 and 85.9 percent in children [0 to 10 years] and adolescents [11 to 17 years], respectively). Overall, 80.9 percent of the firearm injuries among 3,679 children occurred in their home zip code and 40.5 percent occurred in a cluster; among 22,422 adolescents with firearm injuries, 69.7 and 51.5 percent occurred in their home zip code and in a cluster, respectively. Among 6,103,297 events in 11,433 zip codes in 37 states, 47.8 and 32.1 percent clustered zip codes were new for children and adolescents, respectively, in 2022; similar results were seen using home zip codes.

"The rate of pediatric firearm injuries and number of hotspots increased over time, with many new zip codes included as hotspots in 2022," the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted March 2025

Read this next

Declining Childhood Vaccination May Increase Risk for Vaccine-Preventable Infections

WEDNESDAY, April 30, 2025 -- Declining childhood vaccination rates may increase outbreaks of eliminated vaccine-preventable infections within the United States, leading to a...

AACR: Incidence-Based Mortality Dropping for Young Women With Breast Cancer

TUESDAY, April 29, 2025 -- Incidence-based mortality (IBM) declined from 2010 to 2020 among women aged 20 to 49 years diagnosed with breast cancer, according to a study presented...

AACR: Nonsurgical Treatment Feasible for Mismatch Repair-Deficient Tumors

TUESDAY, April 29, 2025 -- A neoadjuvant programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) blockade enables nonoperative management among patients with early-stage mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR)...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.