# Understanding the epidemiology of firearm injuries in a large urban county: a guide for targeted intervention efforts

> **NIH ALLCDC R01** · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $342,190

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Firearm violence is a major public health problem in the United States (US), and firearm-related mortality far
surpasses that in every other country in the world. The goal of this project is to understand the epidemiology of
firearm injuries and deaths in a large and diverse population center (Harris County, Texas) in order to identify
trends and risk factors to inform prevention efforts. We propose a 3-year retrospective review of data on
children and adults who were injured or killed by firearms in Harris County to examine the scope of firearm
violence and define risk factors to target future intervention efforts. In order to capture data on the maximum
number of affected individuals, an integrated database for contemporary firearm violence that includes
non-fatal and fatal events from trauma centers, medical examiner's office and police records will be
developed. The integrated database will include personal, social, socioeconomic, and environmental variables
about the shooting victims based on a social-ecological model for firearm violence prevention. This will be used
to identify and categorize individual-level and neighborhood-level geographic, demographic, temporal,
social, and socioeconomic risk factors for firearm-related violence. Geostatistical models will be used to
identify neighborhood-level socioeconomic predictors based on victim residence. Finally, firearm violence
“hot spots” will be characterized based on official crime data for firearm-related incidents (both injury
and non-injury) using spatial clustering by geographic unit analysis. Understanding which subpopulations are
being injured or killed, what the shooting context was, and where the incidents occurred will provide a wealth of
data to devise strategic interventions for decreasing firearm violence at the local level. The integration of
firearm violence data from multiple data sources in a large and diverse population center will provide a unique
platform to analyze injury clusters and provide evidence-based prioritization of risk factors to help communities
design targeted interventions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10163629
- **Project number:** 1R01CE003247-01
- **Recipient organization:** BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Bindi J Naik-Mathuria
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $342,190
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2022-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10163629

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10163629, Understanding the epidemiology of firearm injuries in a large urban county: a guide for targeted intervention efforts (1R01CE003247-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10163629. Licensed CC0.

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