Pediatric practice based evaluation of the Steps to Prevent Firearm Injury program.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of gun ownership and methods of gun storage in homes of pediatric patients before and after an educational intervention.


METHODS
Before and after trial.


METHODS
Hospital based, inner city, pediatric primary care practice.


METHODS
Consecutive sample of parents of patients with appointments August to November 1994.


METHODS
Before the intervention, participants completed an anonymous questionnaire regarding ownership and storage of guns in their home. The intervention followed the Steps to Prevent Firearm Injury program of the American Academy of Pediatrics. It began after the parent completed the questionnaire and was reinforced at subsequent visits until July 1995. Families completing a baseline questionnaire and returning to the office July to October 1995 were resurveyed.


METHODS
Reported change in gun ownership and methods of storage.


RESULTS
A gun(s) in the home was reported by 8.7% of respondents. Matched baseline and follow up questionnaires were available for 23.6% of families. In these, gun ownership reportedly decreased after intervention from 9.4% to 7.0%, handgun ownership fell from 5.4% to 3.0%, and long gun ownership fell from 6.1% to 5.5%. Storing guns outside of a locked container did not change from the baseline prevalence of 2.7%, but keeping any gun loaded fell from 1.6% to 0.5%. All p values were >0.05.


CONCLUSIONS
This study was unable to demonstrate a statistically significant decline in gun ownership or improvement in gun storage after a practice based intervention designed to encourage these behaviors.
D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009820:Ohio / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*