Bindu Kalesan, Gun Violence Research.

Bindu Kalesan, MPH, Ph.D., is a clinical epidemiologist and a biostatistician. Dr. Kalesan is interested in clinical and health outcomes research. Her work primarily explores cardiovascular and other long-term consequences in patients undergoing treatment for cardiac diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and trauma. She also focuses on public health consequences of firearm violence in the US and the short- and long-term effects of firearm injury survivorship.

In October 2017, Dr. Kalesan was named the recipient of a three-year, $693,695 award from the US Department of Justice to study “racial and ethnic differences in non-fatal firearm injuries using a spatiotemporal approach.” The goal is to understand the differences in risk factors associated with gun injuries in different regions of the country in order to tailor efforts to specific places to reduce them.

“Centrally we do not understand the factors associated with the increase in non-fatal firearm injury, or the racial differences in these increasing rates and the spatial differences that are changing over time,” Kalesan says. A better understanding of those factors, she believes, “will allow a tailored approach in implementing interventions and public health programs to reduce the epidemic of firearm violence.”

Although there has been much discussion both in scientific literature and the mainstream media about firearm deaths, less attention is paid to the non-fatal firearm injuries that constitute 70 percent of the victims of firearm violence, who continue to suffer from multiple health and social problems throughout their lives. However, the burden of injury and subsequent diseases is not consistent across population groups—particularly those based on race and ethnicity. Gun violence survivorship burden is also not consistent across the country, with substantial spatial heterogeneity with differences at the state and county level, which is itself changing over time.

Additional research:

Zuo Y, Pino EC, Vyliparambil M, Kalesan B. Sex Differences in Early Cardiovascular and All-Cause Hospitalization Outcomes After Surviving Firearm Injury. Am J Mens Health. 2018 Mar 01; 1557988318761989. PMID: 29540125. READ AT: PubMed

Kalesan B, Zuo Y, Xuan Z, Siegel MB, Fagan J, Branas C, Galea S. A multi-decade joinpoint analysis of firearm injury severity. Trauma Surg Acute Care Open. 2018; 3(1):e000139. PMID: 29766128. READ AT: PubMed

Siegel M, Xuan Z, Ross CS, Galea S, Kalesan B, Fleegler E, Goss KA. Easiness of Legal Access to Concealed Firearm Permits and Homicide Rates in the United States. Am J Public Health. 2017 Dec; 107(12):1923-1929. PMID: 29048964. READ AT: PubMed

Smith VM, Siegel M, Xuan Z, Ross CS, Galea S, Kalesan B, Fleegler E, Goss KA. Broadening the Perspective on Gun Violence: An Examination of the Firearms Industry, 1990-2015. Am J Prev Med. 2017 Jun 17. PMID: 28648260. READ AT: PubMed

Chimbetete C, Mugglin C, Shamu T, Kalesan B, Bertisch B, Egger M, Keiser O. New-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus among patients receiving HIV care at Newlands Clinic, Harare, Zimbabwe: retrospective cohort analysis. Trop Med Int Health. 2017 Jul; 22(7):839-845. PMID: 28510998. READ AT: PubMed

Siegel M, Pahn M, Xuan Z, Ross CS, Galea S, Kalesan B, Fleegler E, Goss KA. Firearm-Related Laws in All 50 US States, 1991-2016. Am J Public Health. 2017 Jul; 107(7):1122-1129. PMID: 28520491. READ AT: PubMed

Kalesan B, Galea S. Patterns of gun deaths across US counties 1999-2013. Ann Epidemiol. 2017 May; 27(5):302-307.e3. PMID: 28528742. READ AT: PubMed

Kalesan B, Adhikarla C, Pressley JC, Fagan JA, Xuan Z, Siegel MB, Galea S. The Hidden Epidemic of Firearm Injury: Increasing Firearm Injury Rates During 2001-2013. Am J Epidemiol. 2017 Apr 01; 185(7):546-553. PMID: 28338922. READ AT: PubMed

Kalesan B, Lagast K, Villarreal M, Pino E, Fagan J, Galea S. School shootings during 2013-2015 in the USA. Inj Prev. 2016 Dec 06. PMID: 27923800. READ AT: PubMed

Niiranen TJ, Kalesan B, Hamburg NM, Benjamin EJ, Mitchell GF, Vasan RS. Relative Contributions of Arterial Stiffness and Hypertension to Cardiovascular Disease: The Framingham Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2016 Oct 26; 5(11). PMID: 27912210. READ AT: PubMed

Kalesan B, Weinberg J, Galea S. Gun violence in Americans’ social network during their lifetime. Prev Med. 2016 Dec; 93:53-56. PMID: 27667339. READ AT: PubMed

PUBLISHED ON 7/16/2016Kalesan B, Fagan J, Galea S. Gun violence prevention – Authors’ reply. Lancet. 2016 Jul 16; 388(10041):234. PMID: 27479565. READ AT: PubMed

Kalesan B, Dabic S, Vasan S, Stylianos S, Galea S. Racial/Ethnic Specific Trends in Pediatric Firearm-Related Hospitalizations in the United States, 1998-2011. Matern Child Health J. 2016 May; 20(5):1082-90. PMID: 26645619. READ AT: PubMed