WASHINGTON STATE DATA ON COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND FIREARM
STORAGE
By JoNel Aleccia   Kaiser Health News
Mark Serafin, an epidemiologist with the Center for Health Statistics at the
Washington State Department of Health, agreed to analyze previously unpublished
data from the state’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for Kaiser Health
News.
The BRFSS is the nation’s gold-standard system of telephone surveys that collect
data from U.S. residents about health-related behaviors, chronic conditions and use
of preventive services, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Established in 1984, BRFSS collects data in 50 states, the District of Columbia and
three U.S. territories, with more than 400,000 adult interviews each year. It is
considered “the largest continually conducted health survey system in the world.”
States administer a set of core of surveys, but they’re also able to add certain modules to
measure additional health questions. Two of the modules focus on cognitive
impairment and firearm storage. In 2016, Washington state collected data for both
of those modules, the only state to do so, according to the CDC.
The cognitive impairment module, which asks participants to answer questions
about memory and cognition in the previous year, is administered only to people 45 and
older. Overall, there were nearly 9,000 cases in 2016 for which Serafin compared
worsening cognitive impairment and firearm ownership. Serafin separately analyzed
data for more than 4,400 respondents aged 65 and older.
He found that about 5 percent of all respondents aged 65 and older reported both
cognitive decline and firearms in the home. That represents about 54,000 of the
state’s more than 1 million people aged 65 and older, Serafin said.
About 1.4 percent of respondents 65 and older reported cognitive decline – and that
they stored their weapons unlocked and loaded. That represents about 15,000
people in Washington state with worsening memory and confusion who store their
weapons unsafely.
Serafin cautions that the answers are self-reported and that people who’ve actually
been diagnosed with dementia likely are unable to respond to the survey.