Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.
Penn Injury Science Center, Philadelphia, PA.
Crit Care Med. 2020 Mar;48(3):391-397. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000004147.
To review the public health approach to preventing and treating firearm violence.
Peer-reviewed, published scholarship and federal data systems.
English-language, indexed research articles on the epidemiology, risk, prevention, and consequences of firearm violence.
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.
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.
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.
回顾预防和治疗枪支暴力的公共卫生方法。
同行评议、已发表的学术著作和联邦数据系统。
关于枪支暴力的流行病学、风险、预防和后果的英语索引研究文章。
本叙述性综述包括与枪支暴力的流行病学和影响相关的发现，重点关注短期和长期结果。审查了支持在个人、代理和环境层面减少与枪支相关伤害的干预措施的证据。
枪支暴力是美国的一个主要公共卫生挑战。枪支暴力的后果不仅限于每年近 40000 例与枪支相关的死亡和 90000 例与枪支相关的伤害。枪支暴力，包括自我伤害、攻击和意外伤害，影响个人、家庭、社区和卫生系统的健康。然而，数据来源仍然不足，无法充分捕捉这些影响。将枪支暴力视为一种疾病，并采取公共卫生方法进行预防和治疗，是减少枪支暴力危害的关键。使用公共卫生框架不仅认识到枪支暴力的身心后果，还将我们的注意力集中在根本原因和创新的多层次干预措施上，以减少枪支暴力的危害。
公共卫生方法使临床医生能够将对话从支持枪支和反对枪支的政治争吵转变为系统地减少伤害和死亡。为了取得类似的成功，我们必须在环境、政策、技术和个人层面设计、测试和实施有效的干预措施来预防枪支暴力。我们必须收集关于枪支暴力及其后果的可靠数据。我们还必须正视不平等和劣势的条件，通过一切手段助长暴力。
