MAPPING FIREARM INJURIES AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH TIME TO CARE IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA kchu@sun.ac.za

PW05-02

MAPPING FIREARM INJURIES AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH TIME TO CARE IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

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South Africa

Poster with Discussion

Cape Town, South Africa, is among the top 20 most violent cities in the world. Longer prehospital times have been associated with increased mortality, underscoring the importance of the golden hour in trauma care. This study mapped firearm injuries and assessed its time to care (TTC).

We analysed firearm injury data from the Western Cape Government Emergency Medical Services from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2023. Geospatial analysis was conducted to identify high-density clusters defined as 1km x 1km grids with more than 50 firearm incidents. TTC was defined as the time from ambulance request to arrival at a health facility.

Among 475027 EMS incidents for injury, 12,274 (6.5%) involved firearms. After excluding 148 (1.2%) records with missing TTC, 12,126 firearm incidents were analysed. Half (n=5297) of firearm injuries occurred in 59 clusters, some with >300 incidents per cluster. Nearly 300 vulnerable sites were located within clusters (schools, places of worship, shopping centres, libraries and sports grounds). Incidents occurring within clusters had a median TTC of 83.2 minutes (IQR 52.4–118.4).

Firearm injuries can result in significant mortality. In Cape Town, these are concentrated in high-density clusters. Prevention efforts and pre-hospital response strategies should be urgently targeted towards these high-risk locations.