Changes in Health Care Spending, Use, and Clinical Outcomes After Nonfatal Firearm Injuries Among Survivors and Family Members

Mental health outcomes from direct and indirect exposure to firearm violence: A cohort study of nonfatal shooting survivors and family members

“…Mental health outcomes from direct and indirect exposure to firearm violence: A cohort study of nonfatal shooting survivors and family members. Journal of Criminal Justice, 101961, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101961 and children of shooting survivors, confirming the known shockwave effect of firearm violence (Leibbrand et al, 2020;Song et al, 2022;Vasan et al, 2021). Our findings also indicate youth family members less than 19 years of age were the most likely to receive a new mental health diagnosis in the period following a nonfatal shooting, compared to adult family members.…”

“…Second, nonfatal shooting survivors are disproportionately represented in Medicaid data and our findings demonstrate official mental health diagnoses and utilization; however, our data only represent Medicaid claims and are missing mental health services received through community counseling or private insurance. Our findings do, however, align with prior work using Medicare and private insurance data (Song et al, 2022). Although our study only includes one city, a strength is the ability to identify family members of shooting survivors using Medicaid claims data; however, as with all secondary data analysis the quality of the available data may be missing or may have missed potential family links.…”

Tracking All Injuries From Firearms in the US

“…We also support expanded surveillance to characterize gun violence exposure as a risk factor. Exposure to gun violence, with or without physical injury, can trigger physiological responses that lead to costly health care utilization patterns for mental and physical illness . Estimates of people exposed to gun violence are largely uncaptured; the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the only national sample that quantifies self-reported exposure to firearms during crimes .…”

The Business Case for Reducing Firearm Injuries

“…5 Moreover, because employers generally insure workers and their family members, companies are similarly affected by a 25% increase in health care spending among family members during the month after an employee's firearm injury and a 12% increase in psychiatric disorders among family members during the first year. 5 All of this does not include any spending on prescription drugs-notably medications to treat pain and psychiatric conditions, for which utilization increased by 30% and 9%, respectively, among firearm-injury survivors in the first year. 5 Such evidence suggests that employers and their health insurers sustain a potentially substantial financial burden from firearm injuries and have a financial incentive to prevent them.…”

“…5 All of this does not include any spending on prescription drugs-notably medications to treat pain and psychiatric conditions, for which utilization increased by 30% and 9%, respectively, among firearm-injury survivors in the first year. 5 Such evidence suggests that employers and their health insurers sustain a potentially substantial financial burden from firearm injuries and have a financial incentive to prevent them. To date, however, US businesses have by and large not engaged publicly on the subject of firearms despite spending large sums on other efforts to promote employee health.…”