Rising Cause of Deaths Among Children — Revised!

Firearms were reported to be the leading cause of death in children (under the age of 19 years), overtaking even auto accidents as per a research letter in New England Journal of Medicine. Auto accidents have remained the leading cause of death among children for the last 60 years. However, new findings contradict the existing reports.

The study team evaluated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) mortality data including 45,222 firearm-related deaths in the U.S. in 2020.

Firearms-related Deaths

It was found that there was an increase in the firearm-related deaths (over 4,300 deaths) among children along with increased firearm violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is especially because of the largely because of the increase in homicides. However, the exact reason behind this remains unsolved.

"In the last 40 years, and almost certainly before that, this is the first time that firearm injuries have surpassed motor vehicle crashes among kids.” "For every fatal firearm injury, there’s a bunch of nonfatal firearm injuries. There’s not really great data on nonfatal shootings in the U.S.," says a co-author of the letter, Jason Goldstick, a research associate professor at the University of Michigan. Hence, further studies are required to evaluate the reasons behind the increase in mortality rates due to firearms.

Source-Medindia