Epidemiology of firearm injuries in Sweden

Karolina Karlsson Nyberger · Eva-Corina Caragounis · Pauline Djerf · Carl‐Magnus Wahlgren

12 citations0/0 files storedEuropean Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Gun Ownership and Violence Research Trauma and Emergency Care Studies Injury Epidemiology and Prevention

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Gun violence is a global health problem. Population-based research on firearm-related injuries has been relatively limited considering the burden of disease. The aim of this study was to analyze nationwide epidemiological trends of firearm injuries. METHODS: This is a retrospective nationwide epidemiological study including all patients with firearm injuries from the Swedish Trauma Registry (SweTrau) during the period 2011 and 2019. Registry data were merged with data from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention and the Swedish Police Authority. RESULTS: There were 1010 patients admitted with firearm injuries, 96.6% men and 3.4% women, median age 26.0 years [IQR 22.0-36.3]. The overall number of firearm injuries increased on a yearly basis (P < 0.001). The most common anatomical injury location was lower extremity (29.7%) followed by upper extremity (13.8%), abdomen (13.8%), and chest (12.5%). The head was the most severely injured body region with a median abbreviated injury scale (AIS) of 5 [IQR 3.2-5]. Vascular injuries were mainly located to the lower extremity (42%; 74/175). Majority of patients (51.3%) had more than one anatomic injury location. The median hospital length of stay was 3 days [IQR 2-8]. 154 patients (15.2%) died within 24 h of admission. The 30-day and 90-day mortality was 16.7% (169/1010) and 17.5% (177/1010), respectively. There was an association between 24-h mortality and emergency department systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg [OR 30.3, 95% CI 16.1-56.9] as well as the following injuries with AIS ≥ 3; head [OR 11.8, 95% CI 7.5-18.5], chest [OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.3-4.1], and upper extremity [OR 3.6, CI 1.3-10.1]. CONCLUSIONS: This nationwide study shows an annual increase of firearm-related injuries and fatalities. Firearm injuries affect people of all ages but more frequently young males in major cities. One in six patients succumbed from their injuries within 30 days with most deaths occurring within 24 h of hospital admission. Given the impact of firearm-related injuries on society additional research on a national level is critical.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 12 citations exist upstream.

References

2018Global Mortality From Firearms, 1990-2016 2013Unrelenting violence 2017Geo-demographics of gunshot wound injuries in Miami-Dade county, 2002–2012 2019Firearm injury research and epidemiology: A review of the data, their limitations, and how trauma centers can improve firearm injury research 2017Gunshot wounds resulting in hospitalization in the United States: 2004–2013 2017Firearm Deaths in America 2018Epidemiology of firearm injuries in a Scandinavian trauma center 2018The epidemiology of firearm injuries managed in US emergency departments

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.