Social vulnerability index and firearms: How neighborhood health disparities affect trauma outcomes

Firearm injuries' association with individual-level socioeconomic risk is well described. Trauma research has suggested that neighborhood level risk factors may be associated with differences in firearm injury outcome. We analyzed the relationship between hospital length of stay (LOS), mortality and neighborhood level social markers from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) after firearm injury.

We used the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Database (SID) in 2016 to identify firearm injuries using ICD-10 E-codes. Patient locations were identified at the census tract level. The 2016 CDC SVI was used to evaluate neighborhood level social vulnerability. Logistic and linear multivariable regression were used to evaluate the association between SVI percentile rank, mortality, and LOS.

We identified 9,764 cases of firearm injury in our database; 88.2% of individuals were male, and the average age was 33.8 years. Assault was the most common intent, accounting for 4682 (48.0%) of all admissions. Overall, SVI was correlated with the risk of firearm injury, but not associated with either outcome of length of stay or risk of death.

While there is significant disparity between SVI and risk of firearm injury, once admitted to the hospital outcomes are similar between low and high-vulnerable populations. To reduce disparities in risk, funding and effort should focus on primary prevention.