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(Reuters Health) – Caucasian American families with young children are increasingly owning handguns, and a new study suggests that this is contributing to an increase in the number of child deaths per year. ball.
The shift to more families with firearms with handguns at home "may be partly responsible for doubling the firearm-related mortality rate among very young children – ages 1 to 5 of the last decade, "said the head of the study. Kate Prickett, director of the Roy McKenzie Family and Children's Studies Center at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.
Between 1976 and 2016, the study found that the proportion of American families with young children possessing a firearm increased from 50% to 45% and from 38% to 6% among blacks.
However, the number of handguns held by white families with young children has increased from 25% to 32% over these four decades. And overall, 72% of those families owning guns have handguns.
Researchers note in pediatrics that firearm-related deaths are a leading cause of death among American children. And despite the historic decline in firearms ownership, the number of firearm deaths is increasing among young children.
The findings of the new study "are a wake-up call regarding the storage of firearms," Prickett said by e-mail. "The only sure way to have a firearm at home is to lock it into a safe, unloaded firearm, with ammunition stored separately."
The Prickett team examined mortality rates for 100,000 white and African-American children aged 1 to 5 in the United States.
Over the four decades of the study, the proportion of child deaths from injuries caused by firearms increased from 2% to 5%.
Firearm-related death rates were three times higher among African-American children than among white children, even though it was still a very rare cause of death.
In total, less than one in 100,000 white children under the age of five and fewer than two in every 100,000 African American children died as a result of a firearm injury during the year. ;study. Boys were more likely to die that way than girls.
The study was not a controlled experiment designed to show that changes in firearm ownership directly influenced the evolution of firearm mortality rates. The researchers also did not know whether the injuries were intentional or accidental.
Nevertheless, the results highlight the need for physicians to discuss with parents the possession of a firearm and to adapt safety messages to family circumstances, said the co-author of the editorial, Dr. Kavita Parikh of the National Health System for Children, Washington, DC
"This discussion can (and should) vary according to family-specific factors – for example, race / ethnicity, urban / rural home environment, rationale for gun ownership, age of home members , domestic violence and mental illness in people who may have access to the gun, "said Parikh by email.
Handguns may be more dangerous for young children because they are easier to grasp than rifles. And unlike large firearms that may be locked up and removed only for hunting or recreation, some families may have handguns in more accessible locations as they fear home invasions.
"Handguns, however, represent a much more dangerous discovery because they are small enough to be handled by a curious child," Parikh said. "The children's hands are strong enough to grab a loaded pistol."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that firearms safety conversations take place before babies are old enough to move or get firearms at home.
"Very young children are very curious and, when they explore a place – inside or outside the house, they discover new things," said Parikh. "They always put small things in their mouths or ears."
SOURCE: bit.ly/2FVhLy6 Pediatrics, online 28 January 2019.
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