Improving Firearm Storage Habits: Impact of Brief Office Counseling by Family Physicians

Article Figures & Data

TABLE 1.

Characteristics of the Sample.

Survey Results	Patients Completing Project (n = 127) % (No.)	Group 1 Control Group (n = 39) % (No.)	Group 2 Verbal Counseling (n = 36) % (No.)	Group 3 Verbal + Written Counseling (n = 52) % (No.)	Lost to Follow-up (n = 29) % (No.)
Demographic characteristics
Male	31 (39)	36 (14)	33 (11)	25 (13)	38 (11)
Female	69 (88)	64 (25)	67 (24)	75 (39)	62 (18)
African American^*	6 (8)	8 (3)	3 (1)	6 (3)	10 (3)
Hispanic^*	55 (70)	39 (15)	81 (29)	50 (26)	45 (13)
White^*	39 (49)	54 (21)	17 (6)	44 (23)	45 (13)
Spanish only	2 (3)	−0 (0)	3 (1)	4 (2)	3 (1)
Children in household	41 (52)	41 (16)	42 (15)	39 (20)	32 (9)
Mean number of children	0.7 (1.2 SD)	0.6 (0.8 SD)	0.7 (0.9 SD)	0.9 (1.5 SD)	0.6 (1.0 SD)
Mean age, years	49.1 (14.0 SD)	50.4 (13.5 SD)	48.1 (15.6 SD)	48.9 (13.4 SD)	47.1 (15.4 SD)
Gun storage and ownership at enrollment
Triple safe storage	36 (46)	41 (16)	33 (12)	35 (18)	27 (8)
Stores gun loaded	20 (25)	26 (10)	11 (4)	22 (11)	31 (9)
Stores gun unlocked	51 (65)	41 (16)	61 (22)	52 (27)	52 (15)
Children know location of gun	12 (6 of 51)	25 (4 of 16)	0 (0 of 15)	10 (2 of 20)	20 (3 of 15)
Mean number of guns	2.8 (3.6 SD)	2.5 (3.9 SD)	3.8 (4.4 SD)	2.4 (2.4 SD)	4.6^† (11.4 SD)
Owns handguns	48 (61)	59 (23)	42 (15)	42 (22)	52 (15)
Owns rifles or shotguns	62 (78)	59 (23)	56 (20)	69 (36)	57 (17)

* Ethnic composition differs between experimental groups, χ² = 14.4, P = .006
† Excluding 1 patient who reported owning 63 guns, mean number of guns is 2.4, range 1–10, SD = 2.1.

TABLE 2.

Group Differences in Safe and Unsafe Changes Regarding Gun Storage.

Change in Gun Storage	Group 1 Control Group (n = 39) % (No.)	Group 2 Verbal Counseling (n = 36) % (No.)	Group 3 Verbal + Written Counseling (n = 52) % (No.)	Patients Completing Project (n = 127) % (No.)	All Participants, Including Lost-to-Follow-up (n = 156) % (No.)
Made a safe^* change^†	33 (13)	64 (23)	58 (30)	52 (66)	42 (66)
Made an unsafe^‡ change	31 (12)	22 (8)	31 (16)	28 (36)	23 (36)

* Safe change in gun storage is defined as reporting unlocked guns at enrollment and locked guns at follow-up, reporting loaded guns at enrollment and unloaded guns at follow-up, reporting access by children at enrollment but no access at follow-up, or at follow-up reporting moving guns to a safer place in the last 60 days
† Safe changes differ between experimental groups: χ² = 8.16, P = .017
‡ Unsafe change in gun storage is defined as reporting locked guns at enrollment and unlocked guns at follow-up, reporting unloaded guns at enrollment and loaded guns at follow-up, or reporting no access by children at enrollment but access at follow-up
Note: Three-group comparison, χ² = 4.78, P = .092; two-group comparison, χ² = 4.67, P = .031.