03 Feb US Youth Nearly 50 Times More Likely To Die By Guns Than Other High Income Nations

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Grinshteyn

Erin Grinshteyn, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Nevada-Reno
School of Community Health Science

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Dr. Grinshteyn: Gun deaths are a serious public health issue in the United States. This paper compared the US to 22 other high-income nations, and found that Americans are ten times more likely to be killed by a gun than their counterparts in the developed world. Gun homicide rates are 25 times higher in the U.S. and, while the overall suicide rate is on par with other high-income nations, the U.S. gun suicide rate is eight times higher. Ninety percent of women, 91% of all children aged 0 to 14 years, and 92% of youth aged 15 to 24 years who were killed by firearms were in the United States.

Semiautomatic gun

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Grinshteyn: Americans 15 to 24 years of age are 49 times more likely to die from firearm homicide compared to similarly aged young people in other high-income nations. For those aged 25 to 34, the risk is 32 times higher. This presents an area of intervention for clinicians in terms of understanding from what their patients are dying.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Grinshteyn: Future research should focus on how to reduce the high rates of mortality related to firearms.

Citation:

Erin Grinshteyn, David Hemenway. Violent Death Rates: The US Compared with Other High-income OECD Countries, 2010. The American Journal of Medicine, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2015.10.025[wysija_form id=”5″]

[wysija_form id=”5″]

Dr. Erin Grinshteyn (2016). US Youth Nearly 50 Times More Likely To Die By Guns Than Other High Income Nations 

Last Updated on February 3, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD