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NIH grant 1I01RD000496-01A1: Leveraging Video Vignettes and Social Media to Promote Safe Firearm Storage Among Veterans
Institute: {'code': 'VA', 'abbreviation': 'VA', 'name': 'Veterans Affairs', 'admin_org_id': '12500964', 'admin_funding_url': ''}. PI: Alan Teo. Award: $.
Start: 2026-10-01T00:00:00.
Significance to VA: Firearms are involved in 71% of Veteran suicides. Lethal means safety (LMS)-the
intentional practice of limiting access to lethal means, such as firearms, to reduce suicide risk-is key to
Veteran suicide prevention. Veterans are more likely to adopt secure firearm storage if their loved ones
discuss firearm safety with them and if they are exposed to compelling personal stories. Worried About a
Veteran" (WAV) is a novel, acceptable intervention that includes 13 compelling, Veteran-centered video
vignettes about secure firearm storage told from the perspective of Veterans' loved ones. WAV has not
undergone formal evaluation and awareness of WAV has been limited. Reddit is a popular social media
platform where many Veterans and their loves ones seek health information, and they appear especially
interested and receptive to topics related to mental health and suicide. VA Office of Suicide Prevention
has called for strategies to support and amplify messaging on LMS.
Innovation and Impact: LMS approaches that leverage loved ones are lacking, which makes WAV
unique. Combining WAV and Reddit is a highly novel and inexpensive strategy to amplify public
messaging on LMS and support universal prevention approaches for Veteran suicide prevention.
Knowledge generated about loved one's firearms discussions and behaviors, as well as the potential to
deliver and disseminate the intervention at scale through social media, further enhance project impact.
Specific Aims: 1) Evaluate the impact of WAV videos on behavioral outcomes related to safe storage of
household firearms. 2) Distribute LMS information on the social media platform Reddit to measure real-world
reach and engagement. Hypotheses are: 1) Exposure to WAV videos will be associated with
talking with Veterans about safe firearm storage by end of trial, compared to the active or inactive control;
2) Exposure to WAV videos will be associated with safe firearm storage practices by end of trial,
compared to the active or inactive control; and 3) Posts with WAV videos will be associated with more
views at 1 week, compared to enhanced usual care.
Methodology: Using a social media campaign, we will recruit loved ones of Veterans with household
firearms, randomize them to multiple exposures to WAV videos, VA News videos (inactive control), or an
electronic copy of a VA LMS brochure (active control), and evaluate changes over 8 weeks in discussing
safe firearm storage with Veterans (primary outcome). Secondary outcomes will include firearm storage
practices, knowledge, intentions, and attitudes. Next, we will post WAV videos and electronic copies of a
VA LMS brochure (enhanced usual care) on Veteran communities on Reddit. We will extract data from
Reddit to quantify Reddit post views (primary outcome) and-as secondary outcomes-complementary
measures of deeper engagement (e.g., comments). Qualitative analyses will characterize themes of
comments in response to posts.
Path to Translation/implementation: WAV videos and Reddit are freely accessible online, making our
intervention ideal for large-scale dissemination and implementation. Next steps may include using the
intervention in suicide prevention campaign efforts led by the Office of Suicide Prevention and facilitating
use by community-based military and Veteran organizations that have expressed interest in WAV.
Project methods can also be applied to other Veteran health issues and VA messaging efforts.document fetched 2026-10-24 02:46