TY - JOUR
T1 - Suicides between 2010 and 2014 in the German Armed Forces—Comparison of Suicide Registry Data and a German Armed Forces Survey
AU - Willmund, Gerd Dieter
AU - Heß, Julius
AU - Helms, Christian
AU - Wertenauer, Florian
AU - Seiffert, Anja
AU - Nolte, Almut
AU - Wesemann, Ulrich
AU - Zimmermann, Peter L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The American Association of Suicidology
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073102168&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/sltb.12534
DO - 10.1111/sltb.12534
M3 - Article
SN - 0363-0234
VL - 49
SP - 1497
EP - 1509
JO - Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
JF - Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
IS - 5
ER -