Citation

Willmund GD, Heß J, Helms C, Wertenauer F, Seiffert A, Nolte A, Wesemann U, Zimmermann PL. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2018; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Bundeswehr Centre for Military Mental Health, Bundeswehr Hospital Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sltb.12534

PMID

30556592

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The last 10 years have seen an increase in the number of suicides in the US Armed Forces. Accordingly, the topic of suicides in the German military has received a lot of attention in media and science alike.

METHODS: This study retrospectively examined all suicides (N = 107) committed by active, nonretired German military personnel from 2010 to the end of 2014, analyzing archived medical records. In a second step, these data were compared to a representative German Armed Forces survey conducted in 2012 (N = 1,549).

RESULTS: The following risk groups for suicide were identified: male (OR = 9.6), single (OR = 7.8), aged over 45 years (OR = 4.0), short period of service (<2 years; OR = 2.7), and low level of education (OR = 2.2). Surprisingly, military personnel with little experience in deployments abroad (<2 missions) showed double the risk (OR = 2.0) compared to those who had been deployed more than once.

DISCUSSION: Multiple robustness checks show that being single, aged over 45 years, and having obtained a low level of education exhibit the most robust effects on suicide risk.

CONCLUSION: Efforts should be made to develop and evaluate risk group-focused prevention programs. We conclude, that further studies should be initiated to show differences of risk groups between lethal and nonlethal suicidal behavior.

© 2018 The American Association of Suicidology.

Language: en