Firearm injury prevention: Internet resources for the health care provider

This annotated bibliography examines public health and advocacy web sites related to firearm injury prevention. In 1998, on average, 1 child or adolescent died from firearm-related injuries almost every 2 hours, resulting in about 3800 youth deaths that year. Including adults, the death toll was 30,708. In this context, advocacy groups, consisting of health care professionals and community leaders, are reframing the concepts of firearm injury as a major public health issue. At the beginning of this new century, many of these advocacy groups are disseminating information over the Internet. Concurrently, professional medical organizations are encouraging health care professionals to stay updated on the latest health statistics, intervention techniques and legislative issues related to firearm injury prevention. In order to stay abreast of this rapidly changing information, physicians are utilizing Internet resources in a complimentary fashion to more traditional means of research (i.e. Medline). This article assists physicians in their online research of firearm injury prevention by providing a select list of effective, informative web sites. Despite the pitfalls of on-line searches, physicians with minimal time and effort can discover useful, complementary information on patient care, injury prevention and community advocacy.