Veterans and Suicide: A Reexamination of the National Death Index-Linked National Health Interview Survey.

• Autores: Matthew Miller, Catherine Barber, Melissa Young, Deborah Azrael, Kenneth J. Mukamal, Elizabeth Lawler
• Localización: American journal of public health, ISSN 0090-0036, Vol. 102, Nº. 0, 2012, págs. 154-159
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]