Risk factors associated with non-fatal adolescent firearm injuries.
OBJECTIVE
To identify behavioral, environmental, and sociodemographic risk factors associated with non-fatal firearm injuries among inner city adolescents in the United States.


METHODS
A case-control study in which patients with firearm injury serve as cases and those with medical conditions serve as controls.


METHODS
A level I trauma center in a metropolitan area serving a predominately lower socioeconomic status population.


METHODS
Cases were 45 consecutive patients 11-18 years presenting to the emergency department with non-fatal firearm injury; controls were 50 age and gender matched patients presenting with acute medical problems.


METHODS
Odds ratios (OR) and associated 95% confidence interval (CI) as estimates of the magnitude of association between risk factors and non-fatal firearm injury.


RESULTS
After adjusting for age, gender and socioeconomic status, multivariate analysis identified four risk factors independently associated with firearm injury: living with less than two parents (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.2 to 12.2), skipping class (OR 7.1, 95% CI 1.7 to 28.9), previous arrest (OR 6.2, 95% CI 1.9 to 20.7), and being African-American (OR 4.2; 95%CI 1.4 to 14.9).


CONCLUSIONS
Risk factors for adolescents sustaining a non-fatal firearm injury are sociodemographic and environmental, not just behavioral. Thus interventions that foster protective and supportive environments may help prevent firearm injuries.
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. cparis@chmc.org
C A
CA
Paris
E A
EA
Edgerton
M
M
Sifuentes
J S
JS
Seidel
R J
RJ
Lewis
M
M
Gausche
D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D014861:Washington / Q000453:epidemiology; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000453:epidemiology*