TUESDAY, June 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Fewer than 40 percent of children with firearm injury receive mental health (MH) services, according to a study published online June 5 in Pediatrics.

Jennifer A. Hoffmann, M.D., from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a retrospective study involving children aged 5 to 17 years with a nonfatal firearm injury from 2010 to 2018 to examine outpatient MH service use. The odds of MH service use in the six months after injury were estimated, adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.

The researchers found that 36.7 percent of the 2,613 children used MH services within six months after a firearm injury; 39.5 percent of these had no previous MH service use. Children with previous MH service use had higher adjusted odds of MH service use after injury (adjusted odds ratio, 10.41), and odds were also increased for non-Hispanic White versus non-Hispanic Black children (adjusted odds ratio, 1.29). Among children with previous MH service use, the first outpatient MH visit after injury occurred sooner (adjusted hazard ratio, 6.32), while among children without previous MH service use, those with an MH diagnosis made during the injury encounter had the first MH outpatient visit occurring sooner (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.72).

“To mitigate the adverse effects of firearm injuries on child health outcomes, public health strategies should prioritize early detection of MH needs, equitable access to MH care, and timeliness of care,” the authors write.

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