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Today's Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008

Male Veterans Have Double The Suicide Rate of Civilians

Monday, September 10, 2007

Male veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than their civilian peers new study shows. A total 320,890 men age 18 and older of the general population were studied, 104,026 were veterans. The veterans were followed by the researchers for 12 years, by the end of the study 197 had committed suicide; risk of death due to other causes were the same for civilian and veterans. Of those studied by Mark Kaplan, DrPH of Portland University and other researchers, white veterans whose daily activities were limited by health problems were at highest risk. Those veterans who were overweight had a lower risk. Compared to civilian men who died by suicide, veterans were 58 percent more likely to use a firearm to end their lives, said researchers. “Veterans in the general U.S. population, whether or not they are affiliated with the VA, are at an elevated risk of suicide,” said the researchers. As the number of veterans with limitations on their daily activities increases, clinical and community interventions will be needed, said the researchers. For more information on this study read the publishing of “Suicide Among Male Veterans: A Prospective Population-Based Study” in the June issue of Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, at http://jech.bmj.com/.

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