Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, JAMA, Pediatrics / 03.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hooman Azad First author and a 3rd year medical student Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University Eric Fleegler, MD MPH FAAP Senior author and Pediatric Emergency Physician Boston Children’s Hospital Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine Harvard Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Pediatric firearm violence is a public health crisis. The firearm fatality rate has increased by >50% over the past 10 years. Over our 26-year study period (1991-2016), 13,697 children under the age of 15 died at the hands of a firearm. Laws have been employed to try to reduce these deaths, and Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws, which aim to hold parents liable for the safe storage of their firearms, were passed in 25 states between 1989-2000. No new state passed a CAP laws after the year 2000. Child Access Prevention laws come in two flavors – recklessness laws that hold firearm owners liable for directly providing firearms to a minor, and negligence laws that hold the firearm owner liable for the unsafe storage of firearms with variability in how storage is defined and what penalties are imposed. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 14.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Crime Scene _MG_4847” by thierry ehrmann is licensed under CC BY 2.0Daniel Romer, PhD Research Director Annenberg Public Policy Center and Director of its Adolescent Communication Institute (ACI) University of Pennsylvania MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We have been studying the steady increase in gun violence that has been occurring in popular PG-13 movies since the new rating was adopted in 1984.  It has recently even surpassed the amount of gun violence in R-rated movies.  Since these movies are open to the public at any age, we are concerned that they promote the use of guns and potentially socialize youth to believe that using guns to defend oneself is an appropriate way to handle threats and other conflicts. We knew that the rating requires the omission of graphic consequences, such as blood and suffering, that can make the violence more acceptable.  But we also wondered whether the motivation for the violence might make a difference as well.  Many of the characters in PG-13 movies are seen as heroic (e.g., Bruce Willis and Liam Neeson).  Could that also be a factor that makes such films more acceptable to parents despite their concerns about their children seeing so much violence in the movies.  So, we conducted this experiment to see if parents are less upset by justified violence in PG-13 style movies.  (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews / 23.05.2015

Marie Crandall, MD, MPH, FACS Associate Professor of Surgery Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, IL 60611MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marie Crandall, MD, MPH, FACS Associate Professor of Surgery Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, IL 60611   Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Crandall: While the association between alcohol and interpersonal violence has been well established, research has been divided with respect to the direct effect of proximity to an establishment with a liquor license and violence.  We used geographic regression analysis, which is a type of multivariate regression including geography as a variable, to examine the association between proximity to an establishment with a liquor license, such as a liquor store or tavern, and gun violence in Chicago. We utilized our state trauma registry and geocoded 11,744 gunshot wounds that occurred between 1999-2009.  On the assumption that different neighborhoods might experience risk differently, we used a combination of ordinary least squares and geographic regression analysis to identify homogenous areas with similar risk.  We used sociodemographic variables as covariates in the analysis. We found that the impact of proximity to an establishment with a liquor license and occurrence of gunshot wounds varied markedly by neighborhood.  The areas of highest risk were found to have enormous associations, Odds Ratios (OR) greater than 500.  These areas also tended to be more socioeconomically distressed areas of the city. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Pediatrics / 18.11.2013

Brad J. Bushman, PhD Professor of Communication and Psychology, Margaret Hall and Robert Randal Rinehart Chair of Mass Communication School of Communication, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsGun Violence Trends in Movies Brad J. Bushman, PhD Professor of Communication and Psychology, Margaret Hall and Robert Randal Rinehart Chair of Mass Communication The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Bushman: Gun violence in PG-13 movies has tripled since 1985, the year the PG-13 rating was introduced. When the PG-13 rating was introduced, PG-13 films had about as much gun violence as G and PG films. Now PG-13 films have significantly more gun violence than R-rated films. (more…)