JAMA Internal Medicine is publishing another collection of articles on firearm violence, including two original investigations, two commentaries and an editorial. JAMA also is publishing a research letter on gun violence research.
"In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, we continue our focus on firearm violence by publishing two studies and related commentaries on innovative approaches to understanding and responding to firearm homicides in urban areas," writes JAMA Internal Medicine Editor at Large Robert Steinbrook, M.D., of the Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn., in the editorial, "Responding to Firearm Homicide in Urban Areas."
Details on the articles are below. All the articles are available on the For The Media website.
The original investigation, "Association of Drug and Alcohol Use With Adolescent Firearm Homicide at Individual, Family and Neighborhood Levels," by Bernadette C. Hohl, Ph.D., M.P.H., of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, and coauthors concludes: "Almost all adolescent homicides in Philadelphia between 2010 and 2012 were committed with a firearm. Substance use at the individual, family, and neighborhood levels was associated with increased odds of adolescent firearm homicide; drug use was associated at all three levels and alcohol at the individual and neighborhood levels. Expanding violence prevention efforts to target drug and alcohol use at multiple levels may help to reduce the firearm violence that disproportionately affects adolescents in minority populations in large U.S. cities."
The original investigation, "Modeling Contagion Through Social Networks to Explain and Predict Gunshot Violence in Chicago, 2006 to 2014," by Andrew V. Papachristos, Ph.D., of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., and coauthors concludes: "Gunshot violence follows an epidemic-like process of social contagion that is transmitted through networks of people by social interactions. Violence prevention efforts that account for social contagion, in addition to demographics, have the potential to prevent more shootings than efforts that focus on only demographics."
Also available are the commentaries, "The Roles of Alcohol and Drugs in Firearm Violence" and "Firearm Violence as a Disease - 'Hot People' or 'Hot Spots?'"
The research letter in JAMA, "Funding and Publication of Research on Gun Violence and Other Leading Causes of Death," by David E. Stark, M.D., M.S., of the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and a coauthor concludes: "Injury research has been generally unsupported - a finding replicated in the present study. Gun violence had less funding and fewer publications than comparable injury-related causes of death including motor vehicle accidents and poisonings. Given that gun violence disproportionately affects the young and inflicts many more nonfatal injuries than deaths, it is likely that the true magnitude of research funding disparity, when considering years of potential life lost or lived with disability, is even greater."
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Editor's Note: Please see the articles for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
Media Advisory: To contact corresponding author Robert Steinbrook, M.D., email mediarelations@jamanetwork.org; to contact corresponding author Bernadette C. Hohl, Ph.D., M.P.H., call Jeff Tolvin at 908-229-3475 or email jeff.tolvin@rutgers.edu; to contact corresponding author Andrew V. Papachristos, Ph.D., call Bess Connolly Martell at 203-432-1324 or email elizabeth.connollymartell@yale.edu; and to contact JAMA corresponding author David E. Stark, M.D., M.S., call Sasha Walek at 917-471-4578 or email sasha.walek@mssm.edu.
Previously published material: Other JAMA Network articles on firearm violence are available here.
To place an electronic embedded link in your story: Links will be live at the embargo time. The links are in the order of the articles mentioned below:
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.8509
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.8180
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.8245
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.8192
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.8273
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2016.16215
Journal
JAMA Internal Medicine