Citation

May JP, Martin KL. J. Gen. Intern Med. 1993; 8(7): 380-382.

Affiliation

Department of Primary Care, Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Illinois.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8410399

Abstract

Homicide is the leading cause of death in African-American men aged 15-34 years, yet physicians rarely discuss homicide prevention with patients. The authors propose that physicians have a role in preventing homicide similar to their role in other preventive medicine issues. This study evaluated patients' responsiveness to a physician's counseling about firearms and homicide. While being treated for unrelated problems at a walk-in ambulatory clinic, 53 African-American men patients received brief counseling by the physician about six preventive medicine topics, including firearms. A postvisit interview demonstrated that the discussion of firearms was well received and recalled more than any other preventive medicine issue discussed.

Language: en