Citation

Bullman T, Schneiderman A. Am. J. Epidemiol. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

US Dept of Veterans Affairs, Office of Patient Care Services, Post Deployment Health Services.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/aje/kwz135

PMID

31145431

Abstract

The risk of suicide among US military deployed for peace keeping missions is unknown. This study compared the risk of suicide through December 2014 among 70,608 veterans who deployed as peacekeepers to Bosnia/Kosovo between 1996 and 2002 to that of 141,715 veterans who served in the military between 1996 and 2002 but were not deployed to Bosnia/Kosovo. Both cohorts were also compared after removing those who had other conflict deployments. Suicide risk among Bosnia/Kosovo deployed relative to non-Bosnia/Kosovo deployed veterans was assessed using a Hazard Ratio (HR). Among all veterans, without excluding those with other conflict deployments, deployment to Bosnia/Kosovo was not associated with an increased risk of suicide, HR=0.83 (95%, confidence interval: 0.72,0.96). Removing those with other conflict deployments, Bosnia/Kosovo deployed veterans again had a decreased risk of suicide compared to non-Bosnia/Kosovo deployed veterans, HR=0.84 (95% confidence interval: 0.72,0.99). The rates of suicide among all four groups were higher than expected based on the US population. The risk of suicide based on US population comparison was greater among non-Bosnia/Kosovo deployed than Bosnia/Kosovo deployed veterans. The absence of an increased risk of suicide associated with Bosnia/Kosovo deployment may be due to pre-deployment psychological/behavioral characteristics that affect fitness for deployment.

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2019.

Language: en

Keywords

Cohort; risk; suicide; veterans