An Ohio State study found that suicide by firearm rates have increased by over 25% among women over the past two decades, and 42% of women who died by firearm suicide had no prior mental or physical illness
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An Ohio State study found that suicide by firearm rates have increased by over 25% among women over the past two decades, and 42% of women who died by firearm suicide had no prior documentation of mental or physical illness.
Laura Prater, assistant professor in Ohio State’s College of Public Health, was the lead author on the study. She said she wanted to study firearm suicides among women in particular because she noticed an unprecedented increase within the demographic.
“Firearm death and firearm suicide in particular has been studied consistently among white and older men, as older white men are the demographic that are most likely to die from firearm suicide,” Prater said. “However, I noticed, and it’s been documented, that it’s been increasing among women.”
Prater said it’s important not to overlook women in firearm suicide research — even if they have been historically neglected — because the number of firearm suicides among women has been increasing.
Notably, Prater said suicide by firearms is now one of the most common methods of suicide among women.
“It has increased by over 25% over the last two decades among women specifically,” Prater said. “But we don’t have a lot of great studies characterizing this because research on firearms has only recently been prioritized, and men came first, but now it’s time to better understand what’s really happening with women.”
The study analyzed the medical records of over 8,000 women who had died by suicide by firearm, then placing them into four groups using latent class analysis — a statistical method used to identify subgroups within a population based on shared characteristics — Prater said.
The first group included those who had reported suicidal ideation, the second included those who had reported substance abuse disorders, the third included those who had reported physical health problems and the fourth — only 4% of those included — included those who had reported a mix of mental and physical health problems, Prater said.
Prater said she wasn’t expecting to find that almost half of the women surveyed did not fall into any of the four groups and had minimal to no history of mental or physical health issues. She said this finding is important because it points to how the health care system may not be the only area where targeted suicide prevention is beneficial.
“These women were very different from the ones that did fit into the classes, but this group is also important because our whole goal with this study was to see where these women might be receiving health care, if at all, and so that we could get a better idea of where to work on prevention, like meeting them in certain healthcare settings,” Prater said. “But we found that for 42% of these women, that wouldn’t have been a good way to reach them.”
Rosie Bauder, an assistant professor in Ohio State’s College of Medicine, said Prater’s findings are critical because they demonstrate the nuance of suicide as as a public health problem.
“Suicide is complex,” Bauder said. “It’s not just one thing that’s going to predict or elevate risk. I think, critically, this study identifies that it’s actually other features of health that we also need to keep in mind and not get distracted by just looking at substance use, disorders, depression or other features of mental health symptoms, especially when it comes to firearm suicide.”
Prater said following the results of the study, she feels it’s time to look beyond health services when creating intervention methods and focus more on firearm storage in homes.
“One thing that can work for everyone is having some basic public health messaging in clinical encounters and social services,” Prater said. “Something like a standardized lethal-means assessment question, like, ‘Is there a firearm in the home?’ It’s about finding ways to make sure folks know the risk of not having a firearm stored safely. Even if it’s not a risk to themselves, it could be a risk to their loved ones within the home.”
Similarly, Bauder said it may be better to educate firearm owners on safety practices rather than attempting to identify people at risk of suicide.
“Instead of focusing on trying to get precision in identifying people at risk, sometimes what you can do is almost operate preemptively with folks who have access to lethal means,” Bauder said. “In this scenario, broach the conversation saying, ‘How do you store your guns?’ which can be that opening and engaging question to facilitate lethal means safety counseling.”
Bauder said she feels a way to navigate a conversation around safe storage of firearms without entering an unwanted gun rights debate is to emphasize the shared value of general safety and caring for loved ones.
“The primary reason women report buying and owning guns is for personal protection and safety,” Bauder said. “So, if we can leverage that value of safety, we can also articulate, ‘Here are some other things you might consider to continue to honor that value.’ I think when we can prioritize safety, we’re just far more successful in working toward that same goal.”
Bauder also said it’s important to research and pinpoint ways to prevent a lethal suicide attempt, such as safe firearm storage, as 75% of people who attempt suicide will not attempt again.
“I like to remind folks that when we think about increasing the likelihood of surviving an attempt, we can make meaningful progress,” Bauder said. “There’s a myth that if we increase secure storage practices of firearms, that somebody’s just going to choose something else, but that’s actually not true. If somebody doesn’t have access to an identified method, it is incredibly uncommon that somebody chooses another lethal method, and if they do, it is significantly less lethal than firearms.”
Prater said working with individuals through firearm safety intervention programs has given her hope that if people become more educated on safe storage, then suicide rates can decrease.
“I worked in developing an intervention to help these conversations happen for older adults and their health care providers,” Prater said. “One of the participants, after seeing the intervention, decided to change their storage because they had no idea how risky it was to have an unsecured firearm in their home. They didn’t want their grandkids or spouse at risk, so they made this change. I know that if we can reach enough people and bring this information to them, that they can make a change.”
