Prevalence of youth access to alcohol or a gun in the home.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the national prevalence of youth access to alcohol, a gun, or both alcohol and a gun, in their home and to describe the demographic characteristics associated with access to either alcohol or a gun.


METHODS
Cross sectional data from the 1995 in-home survey of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which used a nationally representative randomly selected school based sample (n=18 924) of adolescents in grades 7-12, were analyzed. The current analyses were restricted to those adolescents 12-18 years of age (n=18 454). Crude logistic regression analyses was used to determine the demographic characteristics associated with access to alcohol or a gun in the home.


RESULTS
Overall, 28.7% of US adolescents reported having easy access to alcohol in the home. Availability of alcohol was associated with race/ethnicity, mother's education, family structure, and welfare status. Similarly, 24.3% of US adolescents reported easy access to a gun in the home. Availability of a gun in the home was associated with gender, race/ethnicity, mother's education, family structure, and welfare status. Among those that reported that a gun was available in their home, most reported availability of a shotgun (63.0%) followed by a rifle (61.3%), handgun (57.3%), and other gun (16.4%). Ten per cent of adolescents reported availability of both alcohol and a gun in their home.


CONCLUSIONS
One quarter of US adolescents reported easy access to either alcohol or a gun in their home. Given the risks associated with the misuse of alcohol and guns among adolescents, efforts to increase public awareness of the availability of alcohol and guns in the home are needed.
Swahn
M H
MH
Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta 30341-3724, USA. mswahn@cdc.gov.
Hammig
B J
BJ
Ikeda
R M
RM
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D017677:Age Distribution; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011897:Random Allocation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors