ABSTRACT Introduction Self‐inflicted firearm injuries are a significant public health concern and account for approximately two‐thirds of firearm deaths in the United States. Previous research has shown increased self‐inflicted firearm injuries in rural populations compared to urban areas. We hypothesize that hospitalization prior to self‐inflicted firearm injury event is related to different characteristics in the urban and rural populations. Methods The 2016–2020 Nationwide Readmission Database of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project was used to identify hospital admissions within the same year prior to a self‐inflicted firearm injury in patients > 12. Results We identified 6883 self‐inflicted firearm injury admissions with 1532 (22.3%) patients having prior admission to the hospital. Of those that survived, there were similar proportions in age groups and urban/rural designation. Rates for prior hospitalizations for suicide were 25% and 30% for the urban and rural cohorts, respectively. Prior to the self‐inflicted firearm injury, urban and rural hospitalizations included: infection (41.4% vs 44.7%), mental health (20.8% vs 25.1%), drug/alcohol (8.2% vs 4.5%), and injury (3.6% vs 1.7%), respectively. No prior hospitalizations included other types of firearm injury. The most common diagnosis related groups were infection, mental health, and medical‐related problems. Conclusion We found a 22.3% rate of previous hospitalization prior to self‐inflicted firearm injury admission. Despite known differences in the urban and rural populations, hospital admission diagnoses prior to self‐inflicted firearm injury are similar between these two groups.
Lumbard et al. (Thu,) studied this question.