Women less likely to die from gun injuries than men, study shows

Jonna Lorenz
·2 min read
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UPI
Women were less likely to die while being treated for gun injuries than their male counterparts, a new study found. Photo by LovableNinja/Pixabay

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Female victims of gun violence have better outcomes than men with similar injuries, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study, published in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, reviewed details on gun violence from the U.S. National Trauma Database from 2013 to 2019. It included data on 196,696 people admitted to U.S. hospitals with gun injuries.

While 88% of those injured were men, women were less likely to die while being treated for gun injuries than their male counterparts.

The study compared the women with a comparable selection of male victims matched by background, health conditions, injuries and health insurance.

"We found that females have a statistically significant survival advantage after firearms-related injury compared with males, despite exhibiting a similar overall injury burden after matching," wrote the authors, led by Catherine Zwemer of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

"In addition, a lower need for mechanical ventilation and complication rate were detected in the female cohort of patients who had suffered a firearms-related injury."

The study found that 18.5% of women died compared with 20% of men. Women were also less likely to experience complications, with about 1% having deep vein thrombosis compared with 1.5% of men, and 30.5% needing assisted breathing compared with 32.5% of men.

The study could not determine a reason for the differences, but the authors noted several possible explanations. Those include that women's blood may clot more quickly and female hormones may boost the immune response.

Limitations of the study include its reliance on historical medical records and the possibility that matching criteria may have overlooked relevant factors.

Gun injuries are rising, according to recent reports.

Firearm fatalities among children and teens rose by 87% between 2011 and 2021, while nonfatal gun injuries more than doubled, according to a study published Oct. 5 in the journal Pediatrics.

A report released in July by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found that gun-related murders and suicides killed nearly 49,000 people in 2021, a 7.6% increase from the previous year