Regular ArticleAccess to Firearms and Risk for Suicide in Middle-Aged and Older Adults
Section snippets
Cases
Cases for this study were drawn from a consecutive series of suicides 50 years of age and older occurring in Monroe County (Rochester area) and Onondaga County (Syracuse area), New York, between December 11, 1996 and January 20, 2001. All were living in Monroe or Onondaga County at the time of the suicide. The Office of the Medical Examiner (ME) made all determinations of manner of death before our investigation. For inclusion, written informed consent of next-of-kin and the availability of one
RESULTS
Table 3 lists characteristics of cases and controls, demonstrating their closely matched age, sex, race, and county of residence. Thirty-three cases and controls were between the ages of 50 and 64 years; 53 were 65 years and over. Fifty-one cases (59.3%) resided in Monroe County and 35 (40.7%) in Onondaga County. There was no significant difference between these two groups in age, sex, race, education, living situation, or the proportion who maintained a gun in the home (analyses not shown).
DISCUSSION
The principal finding of this study is that firearms were significantly more likely to be found in the homes of suicide victims age 50-years-and-over than in homes of the carefully matched community controls. The increased risk for suicide associated with access to firearms was limited to men, the population subgroup that, with increasing age, also has the highest suicide rates in the United States. Furthermore, handguns, rather than long guns, appeared to account for the difference between
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Cited by (0)
The authors acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the Chief Medical Examiners of Monroe County (Nicholas Forbes, M.D.) and Onondaga County (Mary Jumbelic, M.D.) and their staffs in conducting this study. We also thank Andrea DiGiorgio, Holly Wadkins, James Evinger, and Dr. Wendy Armenta for their help with data collection, and Kathleen Graffrath for her assistance with manuscript preparation.
The study was supported by NIMH grants R01 MH54682 and K24 MH01759.
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