Rate of firearm injury emergency department visits was 73.9 per 100,000 visits; highest rates were seen between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m.
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, April 15, 2025 (HealthDay News) — There were 93,022 firearm injury emergency department visits from January 2018 through August 2023 in nine states and the District of Columbia, according to a study published online April 15 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Adam Rowh, M.D., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues used data from the CDC Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms program to describe temporal patterns of emergency department visits for firearm injury for nine states and the District of Columbia from Jan. 1, 2018, to Aug. 31, 2023.
The researchers found there were 93,022 emergency department visits for firearm injury during the study period (73.9 per 100,000 emergency department visits) or about one injury every 30 minutes. The highest rates of firearm injury emergency department visits were seen between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m., and the lowest were between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. On Friday and Saturday, the nighttime peaks and daily rates were highest. The highest monthly rates were seen in July, while the lowest rates were in February; on most holidays, especially Independence Day and New Year’s Eve, daily rates were disproportionately high.
“Understanding the factors contributing to the temporal patterns of firearm injury presents a valuable opportunity for future prevention efforts, and implementation of policies, programs, and practices grounded in the best available evidence can bolster states’ and communities’ prevention efforts,” the authors write.
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