More Than 20,000 Emergency Room Visits for Air and Paintball Gun Injuries in 2008 | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)

More Than 20,000 Emergency Room Visits for Air and Paintball Gun Injuries in 2008 | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)

More Than 20,000 Emergency Room Visits for Air and Paintball Gun Injuries in 2008

08/16/2013 10:37 AM EDT

Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Related MedlinePlus Page: Gun Safety

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

More Than 20,000 Emergency Room Visits for Air and Paintball Gun Injuries in 2008

AHRQ News and Numbers, September 1, 2011

AHRQ News and Numbers provides statistical highlights on the use and cost of health services and health insurance in the United States. Hospital emergency departments saw over 20,000 injuries due to air and paintball guns in 2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This represents a 20 percent decrease in emergency room visits for injuries caused by air and paintball guns from 2006.
AHRQ also found that in emergency departments in 2008:

• About 60 percent of visits for air and paintball gun injuries were for children and adolescents 17 and younger. More than 25 percent were for children aged 10 to 14.
• Males were 5 times more likely than females to be seen for air and paintball gun injuries.
• Visits for air and paintball gun injuries were higher in rural areas (92 per 1 million population) than in urban areas (61 per 1 million population).
• Low-income children and adults were nearly 3 times more likely than those with higher-incomes to be treated for air and paintball gun injuries, at 93 and 34 visits per 1 million people, respectively.
• One in four visits for air and paintball guns were billed as uninsured, while about one-third of visits were billed to private insurance and another one-third billed to Medicaid.

This AHRQ News and Numbers summary is based on data from Statistical Brief #119: Emergency Department Visits for Injuries Caused by Air and Paintball Guns, 2008. The report uses data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. For information about these AHRQ databases, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/datahcup.htm.
For additional information, or to speak with an AHRQ data expert, please contact Bob Isquith at bob.isquith@ahrq.hhs.gov or call (301) 427-1539.

Current as of September 2011

Internet Citation: More Than 20,000 Emergency Room Visits for Air and Paintball Gun Injuries in 2008: AHRQ News and Numbers, September 1, 2011. September 2011. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/newsroom/news-and-numbers/090111.html

BB Guns Can Kill

08/16/2013 10:37 AM EDT

Source: Consumer Product Safety Commission - PDF
Related MedlinePlus Page: Gun Safety