Citation

Miller MC, Barber C, Young M, Azrael DR, Mukamal K, Lawler E. Am. J. Public Health 2012; 102(Suppl 1): S154-S159.

Affiliation

Matthew Miller, Catherine Barber, and Deborah Azrael are with the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Heath, Boston, MA. Melissa Young and Elizabeth Lawler are with the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC), Boston. Kenneth Mukamal is with the Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2011.300409

PMID

22390591

Abstract

Objectives. We assessed the risk of suicide among veterans compared with nonveterans. Methods. Cox proportional hazards models estimated the relative risk of suicide, by self-reported veteran status, among 500 822 adult male participants in the National Death Index (NDI)-linked National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a nationally representative cohort study. Results. A total of 482 male veterans died by suicide during 1 837 886 person-years of follow-up (76% by firearm); 835 male nonveterans died by suicide during 4 438 515 person-years of follow-up (62% by firearm). Crude suicide rates for veterans and nonveterans were, respectively, 26.2 and 18.8 per 100 000 person-years. The risk of suicide was not significantly higher among veterans, compared with nonveterans, after adjustment for differences in age, race, and survey year (hazard ratio = 1.11; 95% confidence interval = 0.96, 1.29). Conclusions. Consistent with most studies of suicide risk among veterans of conflicts before Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom, but in contrast to a previous study using the NDI-linked NHIS data, we found that male veterans responding to the NHIS were modestly, but not significantly, at higher risk for suicide compared with male nonveterans.

Language: en