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Posted by: injest 1 year, 8 months ago
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injest1 year, 8 months ago
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quackpot
"All of the state rates that you cite are considerably lower than the 75/100,000 rate for the Army that is mentioned in the article."
Where in the article did you get 75/100K? The only reference I found with 75 was miles to the St. Cloud VA.
"This does not take into account differences in the Army population (young men in good health) and the state population (men and women of all ages in states of health)."
Which is why I asked, Did anyone compare these Military suicide rate to their Civilian counterparts?
"This also does not take into account the rates for soldiers after they leave the Army."
Good point! So I looked.
EJ744541 - Strengthening the Validity of Population-Based Suicide Rate Comparisons: An Illustration Using U.S. Military and Civilian Data
2006-04-00 Pages:10 Pub Types:Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive Abstract:The objectives of this study were to generate precise estimates of suicide rates in the military
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injest1 year, 8 months ago
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while controlling for factors contributing to rate variability such as demographic differences and classification bias, and to develop a simple methodology for the determination of statistically derived thresholds for detecting significant rate changes. Suicide rate estimates were calculated for the military population and each service branch over 11 years, directly standardized to the 2000 U.S. population. Military rates were highly comparable across branches and were approximately 20% lower than the civilian rate. Direct adjustment essentially controlled for the demographic confounds in this sample. Applying the Poisson-based method, we demonstrate that suicide rate fluctuations as large as 20-40% in any year may be attributed to random error."
Historically Military suicides are lower than civilian counterpart's age by 20%
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injest1 year, 8 months ago
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During 2006, 102 active-duty soldiers committed suicide, the highest number since the last large-scale military deployment, in 1990 and 1991, Army Col. (Dr.) Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general
That's a rate of 17.5 per 100,000, a dramatic spike from 12.8 per 100,000 in 2005 and the highest rate since 1980, Ritchie said. This compares with the 19.9 per 100,000 rate among military-age civilian males.
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injest1 year, 8 months ago
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Contrary to popular belief, most active-duty suicides aren't among deployed troops or those just back from combat. Of 102 suicides during 2006, 72 of the soldiers were not deployed or had been back from a deployment for more than a year, Ritchie said.
Twenty-seven were deployed to Iraq and three in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Seven committed suicide within the first year of returning from a deployment to Iraq, and one within a year after returning from Afghanistan.
Most of those taking their lives were young, junior-grade troops, generally ages 18 to 24 ranking E-3 through E-5. During 2006, 11 were women -- the Army's highest number on record.
A
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injest1 year, 8 months ago
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nother common misconception is that suicides are directly linked to combat or multiple deployments. Ritchie said the root cause of most suicides boils down to relationship problems.
Historically? So I looked it up
Military Strives to Reduce a Relatively Low Suicide Rate
By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: May 19, 1996
"The reasons for this are fairly simple," he said. "Among those in the civilian community who commit suicide, there are some typical features: the person may be unemployed, have health problems and lack a meaningful religion or philosophy, all of which may lead to depression."
In the military, he said, a person is employed, usually in good health and almost certainly drug-free because of mandatory testing, and has the structure of the military to serve as a belief system
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injest1 year, 8 months ago
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"Dr. Rothberg said that while it was difficult to generalize about suicide in the military, there were two common patterns. The far more frequent one involves a young man for whom the breakup with a girlfriend is the last of a series of setbacks. Dr. Rothberg said the suicide of such a man typically occurred after a bout of heavy drinking"
Interesting even though this article was written in 1996, 12 years ago the patterns listed match the accounts in today's article.
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