The study analyzed responses from people 65 years and older in seven states.
SEATTLE — A University of Washington study found that older adults experiencing cognitive decline are more likely to store firearms unsafely.
Kelsey Conrick, a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Firearm Injury Prevention at the University of Washington School of Medicine, found that people experiencing more severe symptoms of memory loss and confusion were nearly 60% more likely to report that firearms in their households were unsecured.
The study defined guns as unsecured if they were stored loaded or unlocked.
Conrick said the findings suggest clinicians should do more to encourage older patients to secure their firearms.
“We know that these conversations, paired with lock distribution, are the most effective way to get more people to store firearms securely,” she said. “They help people make choices about what happens to their firearms while they still can — before they get to a place where someone else has to make that choice for them.”
About one-third of the 4,500 survey respondents in Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia reported having guns in their homes, according to the study.
People with and without signs of cognitive decline were equally likely to have guns in the home and equally likely to store them securely. However, people who reported more severe memory loss and confusion — symptoms that affected their daily lives — were 60% more likely to have unsecured guns.
“We would want people experiencing symptoms of cognitive decline to be living in homes where firearms are stored more securely than older adults without those symptoms, but, unfortunately, that is not what we found,” Conrick said.
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