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Beyond Band-Aids for Bullet Holes: Firearm Violence As a Public Health Priority
- Source :
- Critical care medicine. 48(3)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Objectives To review the public health approach to preventing and treating firearm violence. Data sources Peer-reviewed, published scholarship and federal data systems. Study selection English-language, indexed research articles on the epidemiology, risk, prevention, and consequences of firearm violence. Data extraction This narrative review includes findings related to the epidemiology and impact of firearm violence, focusing on short- and long-term outcomes. Evidence supporting interventions at the individual, agent, and environmental level to reduce firearm-related harm was examined. Data synthesis Firearm violence is a major public health challenge in the Unites States. The consequences of firearm violence reach beyond the nearly 40,000 firearm-related deaths and 90,000 firearm-related injuries each year. Firearm violence, including self-harm, assault, and unintentional injury, affects the health of individuals, families, communities, and health systems. Data sources remain inadequate, however, to fully capture these impacts. Treating firearm violence as a disease and taking a public health approach to prevention and treatment is key to reducing the harms of firearm violence. Using a public health framework not only recognizes the physical and mental consequences of firearm violence but also focuses our attention on underlying causes and on innovative, multi-level interventions to reduce the harms of firearm violence. Conclusions The public health approach positions clinicians to change the conversation from political diatribe of pro-gun and anti-gun to systematically reducing injury and death. To achieve comparable success, we must design, test, and implement effective interventions at the environmental, policy, technological, and individual levels to prevent firearm violence. We must collect robust data on firearm violence and its consequences. And we must reckon with the conditions of inequality and disadvantage that feed violence through all means.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Firearms
Psychological intervention
Poison control
Criminology
Environment
Violence
Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
Social Environment
Suicide prevention
Occupational safety and health
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Age Distribution
Residence Characteristics
Injury prevention
medicine
Humans
Sex Distribution
business.industry
Health Priorities
Public health
Human factors and ergonomics
030208 emergency & critical care medicine
Harm
030228 respiratory system
Socioeconomic Factors
Wounds, Gunshot
Public Health
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15300293
- Volume :
- 48
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Critical care medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c1c3eae06ae30a2087ff84770ccf1bcd