Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Major Cause Of Death In American Children Isn't Disease But Injury Caused By Car Crashes, Firearms
Los Angeles Times: More Than 15% Of Childhood Deaths In America Are Due To Guns, Study Says
More than 3,000 children and adolescents died of a gunshot wound in the United States in 2016, a new tally of childhood deaths finds. These episodes accounted for 15.4% of all Americans between the ages of 1 and 19 who died in 2016, and a quarter of those killed by injury rather than disease. As they inch their way back to rates last seen in 1999, childhood deaths attributed to firearms — 3,143 — generated 70% more grieving families than those produced by pediatric cancer — 1,853. Guns also broke the hearts of more than three times as many families than did childhood drownings — 995 — or the combined category of poisoning deaths and fatal drug overdoses — 982. (Healy, 12/19)
NPR: Study: Kids More Likely To Die From Cars And Guns In U.S. Than Elsewhere
Lead author Rebecca Cunningham of the University of Michigan, who has been an emergency room physician for 20 years, wasn't surprised. "I've been taking care of kids and unfortunately giving bad news to families for several decades," she says. Cunningham sees some good news in the motor vehicle number. Death rates from crashes have dropped dramatically over the years, from 10 deaths per 100,000 children and adolescents in 1999 to 5.21 deaths per 100,000 in 2016. (Silberner, 12/19)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: How Your Child’s Primary-Care Doctor Can Prevent Gun Injury And Death
A simple intervention involves primary-care doctors asking parents whether their children have access to guns and providing parents with mechanisms such as cable locks to help store the firearms more safely. In a 2008 study conducted in 137 pediatric primary-care practices across the country, families who received this brief intervention were more likely to store their guns safely than families who did not receive the intervention. (Beinas, 12/20)
