An Examination of United States Air Force Suicide Decedents Based on Documented Suicide Attempt Histories

In this study, we compared United States military decedents who died by suicide on their first attempt with decedents who had made multiple attempts. Death investigation files for 217 United States Air Force (USAF) personnel who died by suicide between 1996 and 2006 were coded for demographic, psych...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archives of suicide research 2017-10, Vol.21 (4), p.556-567
Main Authors: Kochanski-Ruscio, Kristen, Nademin, Elicia, Perera, Kanchana, LaCroix, Jessica M., Baer, Margaret, Hassen, Helena O., Englert, Maj David, Ghahramanlou-Holloway, Marjan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Air force
Death & dying
Demography
Female
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Medical diagnosis
Mental Disorders - epidemiology
military
Military Personnel - statistics & numerical data
Prevention programs
Psychosocial factors
Risk Factors
Stress, Psychological - epidemiology
Suicide
Suicide - statistics & numerical data
suicide death
Suicide prevention
suicide risk factor
Suicide, Attempted - statistics & numerical data
Suicides & suicide attempts
United States - epidemiology
Young Adult
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Summary:In this study, we compared United States military decedents who died by suicide on their first attempt with decedents who had made multiple attempts. Death investigation files for 217 United States Air Force (USAF) personnel who died by suicide between 1996 and 2006 were coded for demographic, psychosocial, and psychiatric characteristics. Among USAF suicide decedents, 77% died by suicide on their first attempt and 23% had a documented history of at least one prior attempt. Decedents with a history of prior attempts were more likely to have an interpersonal stressor within 3 months of death and were twice as likely to have a documented Axis I diagnosis. There were few differences between military suicide decedents based on history of prior attempts. Further research is needed to inform military suicide prevention endeavors.
ISSN:1381-1118
1543-6136
DOI:10.1080/13811118.2016.1240635