Gun control and suicide: The impact of state firearm regulations, 1995–2004

Suicide is a major cause of preventable death. Restricting access to lethal means has been identified as an effective approach to suicide prevention, and firearms regulations are one way to reduce gun availability. This study examines the relationship between state firearms regulations and suicide among males, using negative binomial regression and state panel data for the years 1995–2004. Results suggest that firearms regulations which function to reduce overall gun availability have a significant deterrent effect on suicide, while prohibited persons categories have less of an effect. Overall, the results suggest that gun control measures such as permit and licensing requirements might have public health benefits.suicide, guns, state regulations, panel data

Gun control and suicide: The impact of state firearm regulations, 1995-2004

Suicide is a major cause of preventable death. Restricting access to lethal means has been identified as an effective approach to suicide prevention, and firearms regulations are one way to reduce gun availability. This study examines the relationship between state firearms regulations and suicide among males, using negative binomial regression and state panel data for the years 1995–2004. Results suggest that firearms regulations which function to reduce overall gun availability have a significant deterrent effect on suicide, while prohibited persons categories have less of an effect. Overall, the results suggest that gun control measures such as permit and licensing requirements might have public health benefits.suicide; guns; panel data; state regulations

Considerations for Measuring the Impact of Policy-Relevant Research

Philanthropy, and the research and analysis it supports, has an important role to play in informing policy and making government more effective. Yet all too often, foundations and other research funders struggle to understand whether and how their investments have affected policy. This article highlights the findings of an 18-month pilot project conducted by AcademyHealth to help the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation better understand the impact of a subset of the foundation’s research grants, across investment types, on health insurance coverage and health reform, and to help inform how the foundation may more systematically track and measure the impact of the research it funds. This pilot was unique in that it sought to formulate practical recommendations for how foundation staff might collect, organize, and interpret key measures of policy impact on an ongoing basis, particularly when working with limited time and resources. This article focuses on insights that may be of interest to other foundations seeking to measure the policy impact of their research investments

Gun control and suicide: The impact of state firearm regulations, 1995-2004

Suicide is a major cause of preventable death. Restricting access to lethal means has been identified as an effective approach to suicide prevention, and firearms regulations are one way to reduce gun availability. This study examines the relationship between state firearms regulations and suicide among males, using negative binomial regression and state panel data for the years 1995–2004. Results suggest that firearms regulations which function to reduce overall gun availability have a significant deterrent effect on suicide, while prohibited persons categories have less of an effect. Overall, the results suggest that gun control measures such as permit and licensing requirements might have public health benefits

Gun control and suicide: The impact of state firearm regulations, 1995-2004

Suicide is a major cause of preventable death. Restricting access to lethal means has been identified as an effective approach to suicide prevention, and firearms regulations are one way to reduce gun availability. This study examines the relationship between state firearms regulations and suicide among males, using negative binomial regression and state panel data for the years 1995–2004. Results suggest that firearms regulations which function to reduce overall gun availability have a significant deterrent effect on suicide, while prohibited persons categories have less of an effect. Overall, the results suggest that gun control measures such as permit and licensing requirements might have public health benefits

The geography of self-injury: Spatial patterns in attempted and completed suicide

This study uses hospital discharge data, death certificates and medical examiner data for New Jersey for 1999-2001 to investigate whether fatal and non-fatal self-injury exhibit similar geographic patterns. Findings show that the demographic characteristics of individuals committing fatal and non-fatal self-injury are quite different. Furthermore, attempted and completed suicides have a somewhat different geographical pattern. Municipality-level determinants of suicide and non-fatal self-injury were estimated in two separate models. While measures of isolation such as low population density and high proportions of households with only one member were predictive of completed suicides, non-fatal self-injury was related to unemployment and median age. Both types of self-injury were more common in municipalities which lost population between 1990 and 2000, and where divorce rates were high. Population-based suicide prevention efforts should be aided by the knowledge that although there are some similarities in the spatial pattern of completed and attempted suicides, there are some important differences in significant determinants.Suicide Self-injury Rural-urban Spatial Attempted suicide USA

Agricultural change and the rural problem: Farm women and the Country Life Movement

Although the early twentieth century was a period of unprecedented agricultural prosperity, the status of the countryside drew the concerned attention of a group of Progressive Era reformers. Their alarm at the apparent rise in the rate of rural to urban migration and their growing conviction that rural communities were plagued by serious social problems led to the emergence of a loosely organized reform effort known as the Country Life Movement. The nature of this attempt to improve rural society and reduce rural outmigration reflected both a traditional idealization of farm life and contemporary concerns about the implications of urbanization and industrialization. Estimates of rural to urban migration in the early twentieth century essentially validate the Country Life reformers\u27 concerns about rising rural outmigration. In their attempt to retain the quantity and improve the quality of the rural population, Country Life reformers devoted much attention to identifying and proposing solutions to the various social and economic dimensions of the overall rural problem. Ultimately, they were unable to influence rural outmigration, and the debate about the causes of this migration shifted away from the Country Life concern about rural social problems after the First World War. Yet the preoccupation of many Country Life reformers with social issues, and the important role which many believed that farm women could play in the solution to the rural problem influenced the development and, initially, the content of agricultural extension education for women. Agricultural reformers both within and outside of the Country Life movement debated the relative importance of social and economic reform, and this debate was reflected in the emergence of two competing models of extension education in the early twentieth century. The advocates of economic reform prevailed, and extension education for women came to emphasize more practical concerns. Therefore, although the influence of the Country Life perspective ultimately waned, their initial goals and beliefs continued to inform the way in which extension work for women was justified, if not its actual content