Screening for Youth Firearm Violence Exposure in Primary Care

•Youth respond honestly to screening questions about gun violence exposure.•Violence prevention programs are open to partner with primary care clinics for referrals.•Clinicians believe screening for gun violence is important and helps identify at-risk youth. To assess a modified gun violence exposure tool at a pediatric clinic on the West Side of Chicago to identify youth at high-risk of future gun violence A modified version of the ‘SaFETy’ gun violence exposure tool, studied in a community pediatric primary care setting, was implemented from June-Aug 2021. Patients and pediatric clinicians were surveyed post-pilot. Out of 508 eligible patients, 341 youth (67.1%) completed the SaFETy tool. None had a SaFETy score ≥ 6, the threshold for immediate referral. Over a quarter (26.4%) of youth had a score of 1-5, and of those 7.8% were referred at the clinician's discretion. Youth (n=84) participants randomly selected to complete an anonymous survey provided feedback about the SaFETY tool reporting the questions were easy to understand (92%) . All 6 pediatric clinicians surveyed agreed the tool helped identify youth exposed to gun violence. Screening for gun violence exposure among youth is logistically feasible in the pediatric outpatient setting. A more sensitive validated tool to stratify low/medium-risk patients in the primary care setting is needed.