Acoustic Exposure to Gunfire Is Associated With a Temporal Rise in Blood Pressure in Chicago

Hypertension is prevalent among communities with exposure to gun violence. However, it remains unknown whether acoustic exposure to gunfire is associated with changes in blood pressure (BP).

We performed a retrospective cohort study of 27 765 adult patients who completed ≥2 clinic visits between 2017 and 2023 at an academic medical center on the South Side of Chicago. Our primary outcome was change in clinic-measured BP. We measured acoustic exposure to gunfire using ShotSpotter, an acoustic technology that records the time and location of gunfire. We used multivariable linear regression to examine change in BP as a function of acoustic exposure to gunfire, adjusting for age, sex, season, baseline BP, and neighborhood type.

Acoustic exposure to gunfire was associated with an increase in systolic BP ranging from 0.2 mm Hg per incident at 1 week to 0.01 mm Hg per incident at 6 months. Results were similar for diastolic BP. Patients living in areas with low baseline levels of gunfire experienced a larger rise in BP per incident (up to 10-fold higher) than those living in areas with high baseline levels of gunfire. During periods of high gunfire (90th percentile), patients in neighborhoods with high baseline levels of gunfire may experience a rise in BP up to 2.52 mm Hg, whereas those living in neighborhoods with low baseline levels may experience a larger rise up to 5.32 mm Hg.

In a cohort of adults from an urban academic medical center, acoustic exposure to gunfire was associated with a temporal increase in BP.