@article{ref1,
title="Injuries from firearms in hunting activities",
journal="Injury",
year="2014",
author="Loder, Randall T. and Farren, Neil",
volume="45",
number="8",
pages="1207-1214",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Recreational hunting is a very popular sport, and frequently involves firearms. Few studies address the pattern of firearm injuries occurring with hunting and how they differ from firearm injuries not associated with hunting. <br><br>PURPOSE: A nation wide database will provide an overall perspective of the scope of the problem and types of injuries. <br><br>METHODS: Our data were obtained from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Firearm Injury Surveillance Study 1993-2008 (ICPSR 30543). It was statistically analyzed for demographic and injury patterns using SUDAAN 10™ software. A p<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. <br><br>RESULTS: There were 1,841,269 ED visits for firearm related injuries 1993-2008; 35,970 were involved in hunting (1.95%). Hunters were older than non-hunters (34.5 vs. 26.7 years, p<0.0001). Handguns were involved in 48% of the non-hunters and 5.3% of the hunters (p<0.0001). The injury was unintentional in 99.4% of hunters; for non-hunters 32.1% were unintentional and 60.7% assaults. The majority of the hunting injuries presented to small hospitals (65.9%) while the majority of non-hunting injuries presented to the large (27.0%) and very large (35.0%) hospitals. Hunters were nearly all Caucasian (92%). In hunters, 57% were shot compared to 77% in non-hunters. The most common diagnosis in hunters was a laceration (42%) compared to a puncture in non-hunters (41%). The head and neck accounted for nearly one-half of the injuries in hunters (47%); for non-hunters it was the head and neck (29%) and the leg/foot (24%). Mortality was 0.6% for hunters and 5.3% for non-hunters. The use of alcohol and being involved in antisocial behaviours was much higher in the non-hunters. The estimated incidence of a firearm injury associated with hunting activities was 9 per 1 million hunting days. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Hunters injured by firearms were nearly all Caucasian, older than non-hunters, did not involve handguns, presented to small hospitals, often sustained unintentional injuries and were not shot; most commonly injured in the head and neck, and had an overall mortality of 0.6%. These data can be a reference for future studies regarding hunting injuries associated with firearms.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0020-1383",
doi="10.1016/j.injury.2014.04.043",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2014.04.043"
}