Trends in Emergency Department Visits for Nonfatal Violence-Related Injuries Among Adolescents in the United States, 2009-2013

Purpose: Violence-related injuries are a major cause of death and disability among adolescents in the United States. The objective of this study was to examine trends in adolescent violence-related injuries between 2009 and 2013. Methods: This study examined data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program for years 2009-2013. Linear regression was used to assess trends in rates of violence-related injuries among adolescents aged between 10 and 19 years. Results: We found overall rates of nonfatal violence-related injuries among all adolescents did not change significantly across the study years (p = .502). However, self-harm injury rates have significantly increased among female and younger adolescents during the period (p = .001 and .011, respectively). Conclusions: Our results indicate that the overall intentional injury rates in adolescents have been stable; however, rates of self-injury have significantly increased in younger adolescents and females. Future research should focus on exploring causes of increases in self-harm injuries in these subpopulations. (C) 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.