Deaths by firearms in the United States, including suicide, have increased by nearly 50 percent over the past two decades. There has also been a rise in the number of guns throughout the country, with firearms now in at least one-third of all American homes. Additionally, there has been an increase in the number of women gun owners, with women representing some 50 percent of all new gun owners during 2020.
A new study led by Laura Prater, assistant professor of health services management and policy at Ohio State University, has examined firearm suicides among American women and identified an urgent need for new prevention strategies.
Dr. Prater and her co-authors examined a sample of 8,318 women who died by firearm suicide between January 2014 and December 2018, finding over half of the deceased were associated with more than one of three distinct risk factors: alcohol use or substance use disorders (26.4 percent), depression and suicidal thoughts (47.5 percent), and physical health problems and pain (21.9 percent), with 4.2 percent associated with all three risk factors. However, a substantial subset of the women included in the study (42.1 percent), were associated with just one – or zero – risk factors. Notably, a large portion of all women in the study (23.4 percent of those with 0 or 1 risk factors and 29.5 percent of those with multiple risk factors) experienced intimate partner violence prior to their deaths
Among all women included in the study, only 28.6 percent had documented evidence of mental health treatment and just 21.2 percent had documented physical health diagnoses. This suggests that a large portion of the study’s sample had limited engagement with healthcare providers who could have implemented suicide prevention opportunities.
Based on these findings, Dr. Prater and her co-authors believe suicide prevention strategies must be implemented outside of healthcare settings, such as in programs for women experiencing domestic violence and community events targeted at women. Furthermore, the authors stress that healthcare centers should require training on evidence-based suicide prevention models and lethal means assessment.
Dr. Prater has been a faculty member with the Ohio State University College of Public Health for the past two years. She is a graduate of Kent State University and earned her master of public health degree, master of healthcare administration degree, and Ph.D. in public health from Ohio State. Her co-authors included scholars affiliated with Ohio State, the University of Washington, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Drexel University in Philadelphia, and the University of Utah.