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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
In the first nationally representative study to examine the relationship between survey measures of household firearm ownership and state level rates of suicide in the U.S., researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that suicide rates among children, women and men of all ages are higher in states where more households have guns.
"We found that where there are more guns, there are more suicides," said Matthew Miller, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at HSPH and lead author of the study.
Miller and his colleagues Steven Lippmann, David Hemenway and Deborah Azrael, used survey data to estimate rates of household firearm ownership in each of the 50 states and examined whether rates of suicide were related to rates of household gun ownership.
They controlled for measures of poverty, urbanization, unemployment, drug and alcohol dependence and abuse, and mental illness.
The researchers found that states with higher rates of household firearm ownership had significantly higher rates of suicide by children, women and men.
In the 15 states with the highest levels of household gun ownership, twice as many people committed suicide compared with the six states with the lowest levels, even though the population in both groups was about the same.
By comparison, individuals who use drugs to attempt suicide, which constitute 75% of all attempts, die in the attempt less than 3% of the time.
The researchers recommend that firearm owners take steps to make their homes safer.
"Removing all firearms from one's home is one of the most effective and straightforward steps that household decision-makers can take to reduce the risk of suicide," says Miller.
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Posted on April 10, 2007 10:20 PM
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