IHPI members present at largest-ever firearm injury prevention research conference

There’s never been anything like it before. And its success has ensured there will be more to come. 

From November 30 to December 2, nearly 600 researchers and other professionals gathered to share new knowledge and connect with one another on the urgent issue of understanding and reducing firearm injuries and deaths across the United States. It was the largest such research conference ever. 

IHPI members, many of them also members of the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, played key roles in making the 2022 National Research Conference on Firearm Injury Prevention happen. Meanwhile, peer reviewers chose a wide range of U-M research teams to present their results in talks and posters. 

The conference, held in Washington, D.C., attracted researchers, community organizers, funding organization representatives and others from across the nation. IFIP was a co-organizer, along with Columbia University and the Rand Corp.

Here’s a snapshot of IHPI members' research presented at the conference: 
 

Oral presentations:

Predicting beliefs about firearms in the home and suicide risk across ecological levels
IFIP faculty member Dan Lee, Ph.D., presented data from a study conducted with IHPI members Patrick Carter, M.D., who is co-director of IFIP, and Rebecca Cunningham, M.D., U-M vice president for research, are co-authors. It used a survey of nearly 400 adult firearm owners conducted with the Missouri Foundation for Health. The findings suggest that firearm suicide prevention efforts need to recognize the role that fear of community violence, and defense-based firearm ownership, might play in a firearm owner’s actions to reduce the risk of firearm suicide by a member of the household. Based on the findings, Lee recommends that in future, studies of firearm suicide risk attitudes should be longitudinal and more able to identify specific predictors of safe storage or removal to reduce suicide risk

Firearm violence among young adults presenting to the emergency department: initial validation and improvement of the SaFETy score
Jason E. Goldstick, Ph.D., presented partial data from an effort in emergency departments in Flint, Michigan, Seattle and Philadelphia to evaluate a firearm violence predictive tool called the SaFETy score. Of the 815 youth screened with the tool to date, 6% had been involved in firearm violence in the past month, as an aggressor or victim. But 35% of those who scored high on the SaFETy score scale had been involved in such incidents, compared with less than 1% of those who scored low. The project aims to predict which youth might become involved in firearm violence in the future; the interim data shows the tool’s potential but also points to ways to fine-tune it. Carter and Cunningham are co-authors.

More is not always better: Examining the cumulative effects of school safety policies on perceptions of school safety for youth of color
A team including senior author Marc Zimmerman, Ph.D., IFIP co-director, shared data from the FACTS national survey of parents and teens. They found that the more safety measures have been put in place in schools – such as metal detectors, armed security and active shooter drills – the less safe some teens feel. Specifically, Black and Hispanic teens felt less safe the more their schools had implemented such measures. 

Store Safely: A culturally tailored universal prevention strategy for rural families
In a presentation that won one of the conference’s major awards, Cynthia Ewell Foster, Ph.D. of the Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry presented preliminary data from a project she has led in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Called Store Safely, it uses an online prevention strategy tailored for rural firearm owners to try to increase storage of firearms unloaded, locked and separate from ammunition. IHPI member Cheryl King, Ph.D. is senior author. 

Racism experience and firearm injury risk among Asian Americans
With discrimination and hate incidents focused on Asian Americans on the rise during the pandemic, Hsing-Fang Hsieh M.P.H., Ph.D., Zimmerman and colleagues surveyed Asian Americans about firearm ownership and carriage, mental health and alcohol use. They used the data to create a three-level firearm injury risk profile, and found that those in the high-risk group and moderate risk group were much more likely than those in the low-risk group to have experienced racial discrimination.  
 

"Flash Science" presentations and posters

Implementing Community-Based Youth Firearm Prevention: The True Reasons I Grabbed a Gun Evolved from Risks project (TRIGGER)
Ebunoluwa Odueso BS, presented on a project conducted with Zimmerman and colleagues that is part of the CDC-funded, U-M-based Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center and includes a youth employment program that engages youth in building social-emotional skills, learning about root causes of gun violence, and planning gun violence prevention projects.

Care Management Needs Among Assault-Injured Youth Enrolled in a Hospital-Based Violence Intervention
Lynn S. Massey, MSW, of the U-M-based Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens (FACTS) consortium and the U-M Injury Prevention Center presented data showing that 86% of assault-injured youth in a hospital-based violence intervention program identified needs that could be addressed through wrap-around care management services. Goldstick, Carter and Cunningham and IHPI member Ken Resnicow, Ph.D., are co-authors.

Rates and factors associated with firearm carrying among young adults presenting to four urban emergency departments
Philip Stallworth, J.D. shared data from the Screening to Predict Young Adults at Risk for Firearm Violence (SPARK) project; 12% of young adults reported carrying a firearm outside the home, and among them 44% have carried while drunk, high or being involved in a crime, and 26% have shot a firearm to scare or threaten someone. Carter, Cunningham and Goldstick are co-authors.

The Association Between Community Violence Exposure and Parental Firearm Ownership
Karissa R. Pelletier, Ph.D., showcased data from the FACTS survey showing that parents who had experienced violence in their community were slightly more likely to own firearms, even more so than parents whose children had experienced such violence. Zimmerman, Cunningham and Carter are co-authors.
 

Baseline Characteristics of Adolescent Youth Seeking Emergency Department Treatment for an Assault Injury
Laura Seewald, M.D. presented data from 50 assault-injured youth taking part in an ongoing multi-site trial showing that 28% of the assaults involved firearm use or threats, and high percentages of substance use, possible mental health conditions and firearm behaviors. IHPI members Cunningham, Goldstick, Carter, Resnicow, Maureen Walton, Ph.D., and John Piette, Ph.D. are co-authors.