Citation

Huguet N, Kaplan MS, McFarland BH. Am. J. Public Health 2014; 104(1): 151-155.

Affiliation

Nathalie Huguet is with the Center for Public Health Studies, Portland State University, Portland, OR. Mark S. Kaplan is with the School of Community Health, Portland State University. Bentson H. McFarland is with the Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2013.301450

PMID

24228669

Abstract

Objectives. We assessed the impact that possible veteran suicide misclassification biases (i.e., inaccuracy in ascertainment of veteran status on the death certificate and misclassification of suicide as other manner of death) have on veteran suicide rate estimates. Methods. We obtained suicide mortality data from the 2003-2010 National Violent Death Reporting System and the 2003-2010 Department of Defense Casualty Analysis System. We derived population estimates from the 2003-2010 American Community Survey and 2003-2010 Department of Veterans Affairs data. We computed veteran and nonveteran suicide rates. Results. The results showed that suicide rates were minimally affected by the adjustment for the misclassification of current military personnel suicides as veterans. Moreover, combining suicides and deaths by injury of undetermined intent did not alter the conclusions. Conclusions. The National Violent Death Reporting System is a valid surveillance system for veteran suicide. However, more than half of younger (< 25 years) male and female suicides, labeled as veterans, were likely to have been current military personnel at the time of their death and misclassified on the death certificate. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print November 14, 2013: e1-e5. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301450).

Language: en