title: Injuries from firearms in hunting activities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recreational hunting is a very popular sport, and frequently involves firearms. Few studies address the pattern of firearm injuries occurring with hunting and how they differ from firearm injuries not associated with hunting.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  A nation wide database will provide an overall perspective of the scope of the problem and types of injuries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our data were obtained from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Firearm Injury Surveillance Study 1993-2008 (ICPSR 30543). It was statistically analyzed for demographic and injury patterns using SUDAAN 10™ software. A p < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 1,841,269 ED visits for firearm related injuries 1993-2008; 35,970 were involved in hunting (1.95%). Hunters were older than non-hunters (34.5 vs. 26.7 years, p < 0.0001). Handguns were involved in 48% of the non-hunters and 5.3% of the hunters (p < 0.0001). The injury was unintentional in 99.4% of hunters; for non-hunters 32.1% were unintentional and 60.7% assaults. The majority of the hunting injuries presented to small hospitals (65.9%) while the majority of non-hunting injuries presented to the large (27.0%) and very large (35.0%) hospitals. Hunters were nearly all Caucasian (92%). In hunters, 57% were shot compared to 77% in non-hunters. The most common diagnosis in hunters was a laceration (42%) compared to a puncture in non-hunters (41%). The head and neck accounted for nearly one-half of the injuries in hunters (47%); for non-hunters it was the head and neck (29%) and the leg/foot (24%). Mortality was 0.6% for hunters and 5.3% for non-hunters. The use of alcohol and being involved in antisocial behaviours was much higher in the non-hunters. The estimated incidence of a firearm injury associated with hunting activities was 9 per 1 million hunting days.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hunters injured by firearms were nearly all Caucasian, older than non-hunters, did not involve handguns, presented to small hospitals, often sustained unintentional injuries and were not shot; most commonly injured in the head and neck, and had an overall mortality of 0.6%. These data can be a reference for future studies regarding hunting injuries associated with firearms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, James Whitcomb Riley Children's Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, United States. Electronic address: rloder@iupui.edu.
authors.forename: Randall T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Loder
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, James Whitcomb Riley Children's Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, United States.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Farren
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000209:etiology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018409:Foot Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D020197:Head Injuries, Penetrating / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007869:Leg Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019838:Neck Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011998:Recreation; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality
keywords: Demographics; Firearm; Hunting; Injury; Not hunting