TY - JOUR
T1 - Interpersonal Firearm Injury and Death in Portland, Oregon
T2 - 2018 Through 2021
AU - Lake, Marcy G.
AU - Baker-Robinson, William
AU - Harris, Jeffrey R.
AU - Rowhani-Rahbar, Ali
AU - Carlson, Kathleen F.
AU - Bezruchka, Stephen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - The annual number of firearm injuries in Portland, Oregon has been higher in the years since 2020 than in any prior year in the city’s history. This descriptive study analyzed data from Gun Violence Archives (GVA) from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021. All incidents in GVA of interpersonal firearm injury that occurred in Portland during this period were analyzed for location, number of people injured or killed, and demographic information for those injured or killed. Comparisons in firearm injury rates were made with Seattle and San Francisco. Interpersonal firearm injuries began to rise after the first COVID-19 case in Oregon; July 2020 had the most injuries in the four-year period. Black men suffered the highest rate of interpersonal fatalities, with more than 11-fold higher rate per 100,000 than White men in every year studied. Portland had a higher rate of total interpersonal firearm injuries and a higher rate of firearm fatalities from 2018 through 2021 compared to Seattle and San Francisco. Neighborhoods near Downtown and those on the Eastside of the city had the highest rates of interpersonal injuries and deaths from firearms, whereas those in the Southwest had the lowest. Defining the burden of disease from interpersonal firearm injuries is a fundamental step in designing future public health research and implementing interventions to curb the trauma brought by interpersonal firearm injury.
AB - The annual number of firearm injuries in Portland, Oregon has been higher in the years since 2020 than in any prior year in the city’s history. This descriptive study analyzed data from Gun Violence Archives (GVA) from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021. All incidents in GVA of interpersonal firearm injury that occurred in Portland during this period were analyzed for location, number of people injured or killed, and demographic information for those injured or killed. Comparisons in firearm injury rates were made with Seattle and San Francisco. Interpersonal firearm injuries began to rise after the first COVID-19 case in Oregon; July 2020 had the most injuries in the four-year period. Black men suffered the highest rate of interpersonal fatalities, with more than 11-fold higher rate per 100,000 than White men in every year studied. Portland had a higher rate of total interpersonal firearm injuries and a higher rate of firearm fatalities from 2018 through 2021 compared to Seattle and San Francisco. Neighborhoods near Downtown and those on the Eastside of the city had the highest rates of interpersonal injuries and deaths from firearms, whereas those in the Southwest had the lowest. Defining the burden of disease from interpersonal firearm injuries is a fundamental step in designing future public health research and implementing interventions to curb the trauma brought by interpersonal firearm injury.
KW - COVID-19 pandemic
KW - Interpersonal firearm injury
KW - Oregon
KW - Portland
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145831494&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85145831494&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10900-022-01181-6
DO - 10.1007/s10900-022-01181-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 36617373
AN - SCOPUS:85145831494
SN - 0094-5145
VL - 48
SP - 450
EP - 457
JO - Journal of Community Health
JF - Journal of Community Health
IS - 3
ER -