Lower Mortality, Better Outcomes Seen for Women With Gun-Related Injury

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 13, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Among patients with admission for firearms-related injury, women have lower mortality and better outcomes than men, according to a study published online Dec. 12 in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open.

Catherine Zwemer, from The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., and colleagues examined the demographics, injury patterns, and outcomes of firearms-related injury in women versus men in the United States using data from 2013 to 2019 from the National Trauma Database. Data were included for 196,696 patients (23,379 [11.9 percent] were women) admitted after firearms-related injury during the study period.

Overall, 23,378 of the female patients were successfully matched to a male counterpart. After matching, the researchers found that compared with men, women had a lower rate of in-hospital mortality (18.6 versus 20.0 percent), lower rate of deep vein thrombosis (1.2 versus 1.5 percent), and lower incidence of drug or alcohol withdrawal syndrome (0.2 versus 0.5 percent).

"National data of hospitalized trauma patients demonstrate that females have lower mortality and better outcomes than males after admission for firearms-related injury," the authors write. "Further prospective studies are warranted to investigate the ramifications for females and trauma care underlying our findings."

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