title: Family practice physicians' firearm safety counseling beliefs and behaviors.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify family physicians' firearm safety counseling beliefs and behaviors. A survey was mailed to a random sample of 600 members of the American Academy of Family Physicians. A three wave mailing technique was used to maximize the response rate and yielded 271 usable surveys (55% response rate). Outcome measures included training experience in firearm safety counseling, the prevalence of firearm safety counseling by family physicians, and their perceptions regarding such counseling. The majority (78%) of family physicians lacked formal training on how to counsel patients about firearm safety and 49% believed more time should be spent in residency programs on firearm safety counseling. The majority (84%) of respondents never or rarely counseled patients on firearm safety and 50% believed firearm safety counseling should be a low priority in their delivery of primary care. The majority of respondents did not regularly counsel patients about firearm safety, did not believe firearm safety counseling should be a priority, and did not believe firearm safety counseling would be effective in reducing firearm-related trauma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion and Human Performance, University of Toledo, OH 43606, USA.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Everett
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Bedell
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Telljohann
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012449:Safety; D012494:Sampling Studies; D014481:United States