TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - Suicides of male Portuguese police officers - 10 years of national data
JO  - Crisis
A1  - Costa, Tiago
A1  - Passos, Fernando
A1  - Queiros, Cristina
SP  - 1
EP  - 5
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Police officers, as first responders to difficult situations with ready access to firearms, are frequently considered to be at increased suicide risk. AIMS: We aimed to calculate the suicide rate for male officers of the Portuguese National Police (PSP) and compare it with the Portuguese general population. <br><br>METHOD: Retrospective review of the PSP male officers' suicides between 2005 and 2014 and comparison with the suicide rate for the general Portuguese population, adjusted for sex and age. <br><br>RESULTS: A total of 39 suicides were identified, with 34 using a firearm - mostly the service one (30 cases). The average truncated (20-59 years) suicide rate for male officers was 20.6 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI =14.2-27.1). Over the same period, the rate for the general Portuguese population was 13.9 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI = 13.5-14.3). The standardized rate ratio was 1.5 (95% CI = 0.9-2.4). LIMITATIONS: Despite the 10-year period of observation, this is a small sample and there are issues with missing data, such as lack of information for retired or dismissed police officers. Denominators were converted to estimates of person-years observations and we should be mindful of the limitations in the validity of the reported rates. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Portuguese male police officers mostly die by suicide using service firearms. The suicide rates among them were not statistically different from those of the sex- and age-adjusted general population. However, given that police officers are healthy workers, we would expect lower rates - thus, similar rates could suggest an increased risk in the study sample.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0227-5910
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000570
ID  - ref1
ER  -