BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Pediatric firearm injuries increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, but recent trends in firearm injury emergency department (ED) visits are not well described. We aimed to assess how pediatric firearm injury ED visits during the pandemic differed from expected prepandemic trends. METHODS We retrospectively studied firearm injury ED visits by children <18 years old at 9 US hospitals participating in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Registry before (January 2017 to February 2020) and during (March 2020 to November 2022) the pandemic. Multivariable Poisson regression models estimated expected visit rates from prepandemic data. We calculated rate ratios (RRs) of observed to expected visits per 30 days, overall, and by sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS We identified 1904 firearm injury ED visits (52.3% 15-17 years old, 80.0% male, 63.5% non-Hispanic Black), with 694 prepandemic visits and 1210 visits during the pandemic. Death in the ED/hospital increased from 3.1% prepandemic to 6.1% during the pandemic (P = .007). Firearm injury visits per 30 days increased from 18.0 prepandemic to 36.1 during the pandemic (RR 2.09, 95% CI 1.63-2.91). Increases beyond expected rates were seen for 10- to 14-year-olds (RR 2.61, 95% CI 1.69-5.71), females (RR 2.46, 95% CI 1.55-6.00), males (RR 2.00, 95% CI 1.53-2.86), Hispanic children (RR 2.30, 95% CI 1.30-9.91), and Black non-Hispanic children (RR 1.88, 95% CI 1.34-3.10). CONCLUSIONS Firearm injury ED visits for children increased beyond expected prepandemic trends, with greater increases among certain population subgroups. These findings may inform firearm injury prevention efforts.

中文翻译：

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2017 年至 2022 年儿童枪伤急诊科就诊情况：一项多中心研究。

背景和目标 2019 年冠状病毒病大流行期间，儿童枪伤有所增加，但近期枪伤急诊科 (ED) 就诊的趋势尚未得到很好的描述。我们的目的是评估大流行期间儿童枪伤急诊就诊与大流行前预期趋势有何不同。方法 我们回顾性研究了大流行之前（2017 年 1 月至 2020 年 2 月）和大流行期间（2020 年 3 月至 2022 年 11 月）在参与儿科紧急护理应用研究网络登记的 9 家美国医院中 18 岁以下儿童的枪伤急诊就诊情况。多变量泊松回归模型根据大流行前的数据估计了预期就诊率。我们计算了每 30 天观察到的预期访问与社会人口统计特征的总体比率 (RR)。结果 我们确定了 1904 例枪伤急诊就诊（52.3% 为 15-17 岁，80.0% 为男性，63.5% 非西班牙裔黑人），其中 694 例是在大流行前就诊，1210 例是在大流行期间就诊。急诊室/医院的死亡人数从大流行前的 3.1% 上升到大流行期间的 6.1% (P = .007)。每 30 天的枪伤就诊次数从大流行前的 18.0 次增加到大流行期间的 36.1 次（RR 2.09，95% CI 1.63-2.91）。10 至 14 岁儿童（RR 2.61，95% CI 1.69-5.71）、女性（RR 2.46，95% CI 1.55-6.00）、男性（RR 2.00，95% CI 1.53- 2.86）、西班牙裔儿童（RR 2.30，95% CI 1.30-9.91）和非西班牙裔黑人儿童（RR 1.88，95% CI 1.34-3.10）。结论 儿童因枪伤急诊就诊的次数超出了预期的大流行前趋势，其中某些人群的增幅更大。这些发现可能会为枪伤预防工作提供参考。