adolescents found, compared to the general population, assault-injured adolescents are disproportionately likely to be male, of Black or Hispanic race/ethnicity, 3 and to live in areas with low socioeconomic status.ġ Nonfatal assault-related injuries were responsible for more than 394,000 emergency department visits in 2016 among 10–19-year-olds. 4 Assaulted adolescents are also more likely than their non-assaulted peers to have had injuries in the past year, including fight-related injuries requiring medical treatment. 5Ĭonsiderably less is known, however, about adolescents’ patterns of and risk factors for repeat assault injuries, despite evidence that adolescents with serious violence-related injuries are at high risk for subsequent nonfatal or fatal assault injury. 4, 6 Understanding who is at risk for repeat assaults would allow health professionals to target high-risk adolescents for intervention to prevent future assault injury.
Studies attempting to examine the outcomes and risk factors for assault injury via hospital data typically utilized data from single hospitals located in urban areas. One study from Wisconsin examined health records for 495 patients who visited a Milwaukee emergency department for nonfatal firearm injuries.
