Reducing Youth Access to Firearms Through the Health Care Setting

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 Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Youth Access to Guns in the Home
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Means restriction counseling

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 76
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 12 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Counseling; Intervention: Means restriction counseling. Health care providers will counsel parents on the risks of having a gun, particularly an unlocked gun in the home where youth are present.	Behavioral: Means restriction counseling; Health care providers will counsel parents on the risks of having a gun, particularly an unlocked gun, in the home where youth are present.
Experimental: Counseling and locking devices; Intervention: Means restriction counseling and locking devices. Health care providers will counsel parents on the risks of having a gun, particularly an unlocked gun, in the home where youth are present. Parents will also receive locking devices to store their guns securely.	Behavioral: Means restriction counseling; Health care providers will counsel parents on the risks of having a gun, particularly an unlocked gun, in the home where youth are present.
No Intervention: Control group; Youth in the control group will receive usual care.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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.	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.	Baseline, one month, one year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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.	Baseline, one month, one year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Colorado, Denver
• Collaborators: University of Colorado, Boulder
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Eric Sigel, MD, University of Colorado, Denver

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 8, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 8, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): May 12, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 30, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 27, 2019
• Last Verified: April 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: gun; youth; access; home
• Other Study ID Numbers: 13-2829; 2013-MU-CX-0002 (Other Grant/Funding Number: National Institute of Justice)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No