Emory is participating in STAT Madness, a “March Madness”-style bracket competition featuring innovative scientific research instead of basketball teams. Universities or research institutes nominate their champions, research papers that were published the previous year. Whoever gets the most votes advances to the next round for a shot at glory.
The competition kicks-off March 1. The first-round ends on the night of Tuesday, March 7. We encourage you to visit the STAT Madness page and please vote for Emory here:
STAT Madness 2023 - STAT (statnews.com)
Not everyone votes on all parts of the bracket, so your vote can make a difference. In other words, you don’t have to fill out a whole bracket — you can just vote for Emory.
While it is possible for an individual to vote more than once per device in a given round, the way to win is to get friends involved. Please share on social media using the hashtag #STATmadness.
Our team’s paper on trends in firearm fatalities in the U.S. is matched up with one from the University of Michigan on work hours and depression.
More about Emory's paper:
Trends in Disparities in Firearm Fatalities in the United States, 1990-2021
Firearm-related violence and suicides have been on the rise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a study published in JAMA Network Open is the first analysis to show both the sheer magnitude of firearm fatalities in the U.S. over the past 32 years and the growing disparities by race/ethnicity, age, and geographic location.
A team of researchers from Emory University and Boston Children’s Hospital extracted the national number of firearm deaths and firearm fatality rates per 100,000 persons per year from 1990 to 2021 and examined the trends over time. There were 1,110,421 firearm fatalities in the U.S. during this time period. While fatalities began a steady increase in 2005, the upward trajectory has accelerated in recent years with a 20% increase from 2019-2021.
To better understand the contributing factors leading to the staggering number of firearm fatalities since 1990, researchers dissected the numbers further by analyzing trends among specific populations in the U.S. The findings paint a bleak picture of a public health crisis that appears to be hitting certain demographics especially hard.
“In 2021, we have reached the highest number of gun fatalities that have ever occurred in the U.S.,” says Chris A. Rees, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and attending physician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “That alone is cause for concern but when we look deeper into the data, the differences in firearm fatalities by demographic group and by intent (homicide vs. suicide) become more evident.”
Maximum rates of fatalities by homicide amongst Black non-Hispanic men (141.8 fatalities/100,000 persons) significantly outpaced rates of fatalities among White non-Hispanic men (6.3 fatalities/100,000) and Hispanic men of the same age (22.8 fatalities/100,000 persons). The data does show there are also differences in fatalities by intent. Suicides were most common among White non-Hispanic men 80-84 years (45.2 fatalities/100,000 persons).
“Firearm fatalities accelerated dramatically during the COVID pandemic. Multiple potential factors have likely contributed to this including severe economic distress, an erupting mental health crisis, and a significant uptick in the sale of firearms,” says Eric Fleegler, MD, MPH, associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and emergency medicine physician at Boston Children’s Hospital.
As fatalities from firearms rapidly moves up the list of the leading causes of death in the U.S., the study concludes, multiple interventions at various levels are needed to effectively curb these increases.