The current data indicate that existing wearable sensor technologies may substantially overestimate head impact events. Further, while the wearable sensors always estimated a head impact location, only 48% of the impacts were a result of direct contact to the head as characterized on video. Using wearable sensors and video to verify head impacts may decrease the inclusion of false-positive impacts during game activity in the analysis.

Objectives: To examine the size and composition of the privately held firearm stock in the US; and to describe demographic patterns of firearm ownership and motivations for ownership. Design, setting and participants: A nationally representative household telephone survey of 2770 adults aged >18 years living in the US, conducted in the spring of 2004. Main outcome measure: Responses to questions regarding firearm ownership, the number and types of guns owned, and motivations for ownership. Results: 38% of households and 26% of individuals reported owning at least one firearm. This corresponds to 42 million US households with firearms, and 57 million adult gun owners. 64% of gun owners or 16% of American adults reported owning at least one handgun. Long guns represent 60% of the privately held gun stock. Almost half (48%) of all individual gun owners reported owning >4 firearms. Men more often reported firearm ownership, with 45% stating that they personally owned at least one firearm, compared with 11% for women.

Objective: To explore whether recent declines in household firearm prevalence in the United States were associated with changes in rates of suicide for men, women, and children. Methods: This time series study compares changes in suicide rates to changes in household firearm prevalence, 1981-2002. Multivariate analyses adjust for age, unemployment, per capita alcohol consumption, and poverty. Regional fixed effects controlled for cross sectional, time invariant differences among the four census regions. Standard errors of parameter estimates are adjusted to account for serial autocorrelation of observations over time. Results: Over the 22 year study period household firearm ownership rates declined across all four regions. In multivariate analyses, each 10% decline in household firearm ownership was associated with significant declines in rates of firearm suicide, 4.2% (95% CI 2.3% to 6.1%) and overall suicide, 2.5% (95% CI 1.4% to 3.6%). Changes in non-firearm suicide were not associated with changes in firearm ownership. The magnitude of the association between changes in household firearm ownership and changes in rates of firearm and overall suicide was greatest for children: for each 10% decline in the percentage of households with firearms and children, the rate of firearm suicide among children 0-19 years of age dropped 8.3% (95% CI 6.1% to 10.5%) and the rate of overall suicide dropped 4.1% (2.3% to 5.9%). Conclusion: Changes in household firearm ownership over time are associated with significant changes in rates of suicide for men, women, and children. These findings suggest that reducing availability to firearms in the home may save lives, especially among youth.

No abstract

No abstract