The study highlights gaps in suicide prevention by firearms in women

Just less than 4 out of 10 women who died by suicide by firearm had no history of mental or physical health problems in a new study, highlighting a need for prevention strategies adapted to women at risk.

The results occur at a time when suicides have increased, in addition to an increase in the possession of firearms – especially in women, said the main author Laura Prater, assistant professor at the Ohio State University College of Public Health.

Over the past two decades, fire-by-fire deaths in the United States, including those involving suicide, have increased by almost 50%. Historically, women represented 10 to 20% of new firearms owners, a percentage that reached around 50% in 2020.

“The more firearms there are in the houses, the more suicides we see among all those who live in these houses,” said Prater.

“Traditionally, suicide deaths of firearms were the highest among white men, including veterans, and that is what most research and most interventions have been concentrated,” she said. “Now that we are starting to see the possession of firearms and the increase in the suicide of firearms in women, it is important to understand the contributory factors that could help us on the prevention front.”

Research is published today in Jama Network Open.

Less than a third of women in the study had documented evidence of mental health treatment, and only about a fifth said it had known physical health diagnostics. Together, this left a large group for which there were probably limited prevention opportunities in health care.

PRATER’s work has focused mainly on interventions in hospitals, medical practices and other health care establishments, a field rich in possibilities of identifying people at risk of self -harm and connecting them with appropriate care and services.

But these new data, which included an analysis of more than 8,300 suicides from 2014 to 2018, reminds it of other options.

“We must take a closer look at women who may not access the health care system, especially because we know that the problems of intimate partners are still common in this group,” said Prater. “We have to look more broadly than the health care system and ask ourselves if women at risk are looking for any type of service outside this system that we are missing.”

Potential opportunities include the holding of participants in women’s programs that face violence, education of community health workers and the supply of projections and education during events and programs where women meet, said PRATER.

And all health care facilities, including health centers qualified by the federal government, should be places where providers are stressing the safety of firearms and open conversations that identify risks and have suicide prevention opportunities, she said.

“With firearms in at least one third of American houses, generalized efforts to educate Americans on firearms safety and to prevent suicide deaths by firearm are necessary,” said Prater.

The other researchers from the Ohio State who worked on the study are Jennifer Hefner and Pejmon Noghrehchi.