Grant Details
Funder: NIMH
Grant number: R01MH123491
Project period: 08/15/2020 – 06/30/2025
Lead site: Northwestern University (PI Rinad Beidas)
Participating sites:
- Kaiser Permanente Colorado (Site PI Jennifer Boggs)
- Henry Ford Health System (Site PI Brian Ahmedani)
- University of Pennsylvania (Site PI Kristin Linn)
Abstract: The proposed study will work to reduce firearm-related suicide deaths in young people by investigating the most effective way to implement a universal secure firearm storage program in pediatric primary care. The number of young people dying by suicide in the United States continues to rise, and risk for suicide death is much greater when there is an unlocked, loaded firearm in the home. A simulation study found that a modest increase in secure firearm storage could prevent up to 32% of firearm-related deaths in youth. Pediatric primary care is an ideal setting for universal suicide prevention strategies to reduce unauthorized access to firearms, and prior research has shown that both health care clinicians and parents find firearm safety to be an appropriate topic to discuss, yet these conversations do not happen routinely. Safety Check, an evidence-based practice for firearm safety promotion that involves brief counseling and provision of a free cable lock, has been shown to double the odds of self-reported secure storage among parents, but has not been implemented widely. Using feedback from pediatric clinicians, health system leaders, and firearm-owning parents regarding attitudes and barriers related to broader use of the program, the proposed study incorporates recommendations on how to boost the acceptability and feasibility of Safety Check for use as a universal suicide prevention strategy. Combining this feedback with insights from behavioral economics, we will conduct a hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation trial with a longitudinal cluster randomized design. The study will allow us to compare two approaches to implementing the program in pediatric primary care and evaluate the effectiveness of the adapted intervention, now named S.A.F.E. Firearm. The study will include 158 clinicians in 30 clinics who serve 48,475 youth annually in two MHRN health systems in Michigan and Colorado. All 30 clinics in the two participating health systems will receive S.A.F.E. Firearm materials, including brief training and cable locks. Half of the clinics (k = 15) will be randomized to receive the electronic health record (EHR) implementation strategy (Nudge); the other half will be randomized to receive Nudge plus 1 year of facilitation to target additional clinician and organizational implementation barriers (Nudge+). We will collect the primary implementation outcome, reach (proportion of eligible families that received the intervention), during the active implementation year and for 1 year following to allow for comparisons between the active and sustainment periods. Results will guide future efforts to promote firearm safety as a universal suicide prevention strategy. In Aim 1, we will identify the effect of the implementation strategies on implementation outcomes (i.e., reach, parent-reported receipt of the program [fidelity], cable lock distribution, acceptability, and cost). In Aim 2, we will also test potential implementation strategy mechanisms (i.e., how it worked). In Aim 3, we will examine clinical outcomes including parent-reported secure storage behavior. This study can improve implementation of firearm safety interventions and identify the best approach to national implementation, with the ultimate goal of saving the lives of American youth, in alignment with NIMH Objective 4.
Current status:
Enrolling by invitation.
Summary of findings:
The active implementation year will end in March 2023, and data analysis will be conducted during summer 2023. Manuscripts detailing study findings will submitted for peer review thereafter.
Publications:
Beidas, R. S., Ahmedani, B. K., Linn, K. A., Marcus, S. C., Johnson, C., Maye, M., … & Boggs, J. M. (2021). Study protocol for a type III hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial of strategies to implement firearm safety promotion as a universal suicide prevention strategy in pediatric primary care. Implementation Science, 16.
Davis, M., Johnson, C., Pettit, A. R., Barkin, S., Hoffman, B. D., Jager-Hyman, S., … & Beidas, R. S. (2021). Adapting Safety Check as a universal suicide prevention strategy in pediatric primary care. Academic Pediatrics, 21(7), 1161-1170.
Hoskins, K., Johnson, C., Davis, M., Pettit, A. R., Barkin, S., Jager-Hyman, S., … & Beidas, R. S. (2021). A mixed methods evaluation of parents’ perspectives on the acceptability of the S.A.F.E. Firearm program. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 12(2).
Hoskins, K., Linn, K. A., Ahmedani, B. K., Boggs, J. M., Johnson, C., Heintz, J., … & Beidas, R. S. (2022). Equitable implementation of S.A.F.E. Firearm: A multi-method pilot study. Preventive Medicine, 165.