Reducing Youth Access to Firearms Through the Health Care Setting

University of Colorado, Denver76 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this project is to examine the implementation and effectiveness of an intervention, delivered in a health care setting, to decrease home firearm access by youth. The investigators hypothesize that: 1. parents who receive means restriction education provided by their primary care provider will be more likely to report, at the one month and one year follow-up, that they are storing their guns locked compared to parents who do not receive means restriction counseling. 2. parents who receive a free gun locking device(s) will be more likely to report, at the one month and one year follow-up, that they are storing their guns locked compared to parents who receive means restriction counseling alone; 3. parents whose adolescents are assessed at high risk for violence (\> 5 on the Violence Injury Protection and Risk Screen (VIPRS)) or depression (\>9 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)) will be more likely to report storing their gun(s) locked at the one month follow-up compared to parents whose children are assessed as low risk, regardless of whether they receive the counseling alone or counseling plus free locking devices and 4) youth whose parents receive a free gun locking device(s) will be more likely to report less access to guns, at one year follow-up, compared to parents who receive means restriction counseling alone.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Youth Access to Guns in the Home

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 12 YearsMax age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Patient at the Children's Hospital Colorado in the Adolescent Medicine Clinic * Scheduled for any type of appointment * Reports having a gun in the home Exclusion Criteria: * Adolescent or parent speaks/reads a language other than English or Spanish * Adolescent has cognitive disabilities * Adolescent resides in a group home or detention center

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change from baseline to one month and one year in the reported number of guns locked in the home.

The study examines whether the youth and parents in the treatment groups leads to an increase in the number of guns stored securely (locked) in their home.

Time frame: Baseline, one month, 1 year

Change from baseline to one month and one year in the reported number of locking devices parents use to store their guns.

This study examines whether the youth and parents in the second treatment group, receiving means restriction counseling and locking devices, will increase their use of locking devices compared to youth and parents in the means restriction alone and control groups.

Time frame: Baseline, one month, one year

Secondary Outcomes

Change from baseline to one month and one year in the number of gun(s) reported locked in their home among parents whose youth are at high risk for violence or depression.

This study examines whether parents whose adolescents are assessed at high risk for violence or depression will be more likely to report, at one month and one year that they are storing their guns locked compared to parents who receive means restriction counseling alone.