Our Chicago: Children in disadvantaged zip codes are more likely to be hurt by gunshots
A first-of-its-kind study looked at children, across Florida, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin, who live in disadvantaged zip codes, and calculated their odds of being hospitalized for a gunshot wound.
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It found that in some instances, the odds were 20 times greater than they are for children who do not live in disadvantaged zip codes. Since 2020, guns have been the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S.
Dr. Mehul Raval is the Head of Pediatric Surgery at Lurie Children's Hospital and a co-author of the study.
"For this study we used something called the Childhood Opportunity Index. And this is how we determined the neighborhood status. The Childhood Opportunity Index is a nice composite that uses about forty different variables to kind of come up with these areas of opportunity. The first one really relates to somebody's health and wellness," Dr. Raval said.
Raval says they selected Florida, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin for the study for multiple reasons.
One of those, each had a good mix of large, metropolitan areas and small, rural towns.
He says that based on the "generalizability" of the data they used, he thinks we can safely assume the same trends would hold true here in Chicago.
A lot of the injuries were unintentional, "and underlying that is really suicide attempts, self-harm events. And so, when we talk about gun violence and we talk about firearm injury, we need to simultaneously be talking about the other factors that go into play, especially for children."
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
