Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
98139 Center for Health Equity Research & Promotion, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Public Health Rep. 2020 Nov/Dec;135(6):778-784. doi: 10.1177/0033354920954789. Epub 2020 Oct 7.
Although lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have a higher prevalence of reporting a lifetime suicide attempt than non-LGBT people, suicide prevention research on access to lethal means (eg, firearms) among LGBT people is limited. Our study examined (1) the presence of firearms in the home and (2) among respondents with firearms in the home, the storage of firearms as stored unloaded, stored as loaded and locked, or stored as loaded and unlocked.
We used data from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys from California and Texas (N = 11 694), which were the only states to include items about both sexual orientation and gender identity and the status of firearms in the home. We used logistic regression analysis to assess the association of sexual orientation and gender identity with having firearms in the home while accounting for sociodemographic characteristics and survey state. All analyses were weighted to account for the complex sampling design.
Approximately 4.2% of the sample identified as lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB). About 18.2% of LGB people reported firearms in the home compared with 29.9% of their heterosexual peers. After adjusting for sex, age, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and military veteran status, LGB respondents had significantly lower odds of reporting firearms in the home than their heterosexual peers (adjusted odds ratio = 0.47; 95% CI, 0.27-0.84). Among respondents with firearms in the home, firearm storage did not differ by sexual orientation.
Further research is needed to examine whether lower odds of firearms in the home are protective against suicide deaths among LGB populations.
尽管同性恋、双性恋、跨性别（LGBT）人群报告有过自杀未遂经历的比例高于非 LGBT 人群，但针对 LGBT 人群获得致命手段（如枪支）的自杀预防研究有限。我们的研究考察了（1）家庭中是否存在枪支，以及（2）在家庭中有枪支的受访者中，枪支的储存方式是未装弹、装弹上锁还是装弹未上锁。
我们使用了来自加利福尼亚州和德克萨斯州 2017 年行为风险因素监测系统调查的数据（N=11694），这两个州是唯一在家庭枪支状况中包含性取向和性别认同项目的州。我们使用逻辑回归分析，在考虑社会人口特征和调查州的情况下，评估性取向和性别认同与家庭中拥有枪支之间的关联。所有分析均经过加权处理，以考虑到复杂的抽样设计。
大约 4.2%的样本被确定为女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋（LGB）。约 18.2%的 LGB 人群报告家中有枪支，而其异性恋同龄人这一比例为 29.9%。在调整了性别、年龄、种族/族裔、教育程度和退役军人身份后，LGB 受访者报告家中有枪支的可能性显著低于其异性恋同龄人（调整后的优势比=0.47；95%CI，0.27-0.84）。在家庭中有枪支的受访者中，枪支储存方式与性取向无关。
需要进一步研究，以检验家庭中枪支比例较低是否对 LGBT 人群的自杀死亡具有保护作用。
