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Pediatricians are more likely to ask families about smoke alarms than about weapons in the home

2019-10-29T02:34:43.242Z


A team of doctors and researchers analyzed the health records collected between January 2017 and July 2018. The team added questions about the safety of gun storage and the…


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(CNN) - Talking about weapons can be difficult, even for doctors.

LOOK: USA: and Mexico try to stop illegal arms trafficking

That is according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. The study found that pediatricians and pediatric residents were less likely to ask their patients about the safety of gun storage than the safety of smoke alarms, indicating a general doubt when mentioning the safety of weapons with their patients

A team of doctors and researchers analyzed the health records collected between January 2017 and July 2018. The team added questions about gun storage safety and smoke alarm safety to questionnaires completed during regularly scheduled pediatric controls. during that time.

The smoke alarm questions were intended to counter the question about weapons, and the researchers purposely chose something they considered "uncontroversial," said lead study author Carole Stipelman. The questions were put one after the other, so skipping the gun question would have been a conscious effort, Stipelman told CNN.

READ: Sporting goods store destroyed weapons from its inventory to reject violence

From there, the researchers observed how often pediatricians and residents asked these questions.

They discovered that pediatric residents and doctors asked about smoke detectors in 78% of the 16,576 visits studied, while weapons were asked in 54% of visits. The study was conducted in a primary care pediatric academic clinic with 77 residents and 26 teachers.

Why does this matter?

The suicide rate in the United States for firearms in people between 10 and 19 has increased since 2008, according to the newspaper. In addition, approximately 4.6 million American children, or 7%, live in homes with at least one loaded and unlocked weapon, according to the study.

"The safe storage of weapons and ammunition can decrease the appearance of self-inflicted firearms or unintentional injuries in children, and pediatrician interventions can increase the safe storage of firearms," ​​the newspaper reads.

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That is why the fact that pediatricians and residents omitted the question about weapons in so many cases is significant. Stipelman said the numbers may be due to the fear of damaging the father-doctor relationship, because it takes time to create a strong bond of trust.

"What he tells me is that we need to learn to ask, and we need to have this conversation," Stipelman said.

The researchers noted that the patient's ethnicity or race, the doctor's clinical experience or the doctor's gender had no association with the documentation.

The effect of mass shootings

Investigators noted that after the shootings in Las Vegas in 2017 and Parkland in 2018, residents asked less and less about gun safety every week after both incidents.

This may be due to trauma, Stipelman said, but she says she can't say it for sure.

LEE: Mexico asks the United States Government to freeze arms trafficking

"Avoiding is a common response to trauma," he told CNN. "A mass shooting is a shared community traumatic event, so I think resident doctors are protecting themselves and perhaps their patients from being traumatized again by mentioning the issue."

Pediatricians, meanwhile, remained relatively stable when asking questions during the shootings. Stipelman attributed this to having more experience than residents, who are recent graduates of medical school.

"After years of being a doctor, you learn how to continue functioning as a professional in the context of trauma," he said.

Firearms Fire

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2019-10-29

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