Deployment and Psychological Correlates of Suicide-Related Ideation and Behaviors for a sample of U.S. Airmen and Marines

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The three primary objectives of this dissertation study were as follows: (1) To examine the relationship among deployment, psychological related factors, and self-reported suicide ideation following military deployment; (2) To better understand the role of mediators in the relationship between suicide ideation and suicide death; and (3) To determine whether relationship between deployment history and suicide exists. METHOD: A total of 581,996 Post Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA) and Post Deployment Health Reassessment (PDHRA)records of United States Air Force and Marine Corps personnel, maintained by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC), were obtained. Logistic regression models were used to determine deployment and psychological correlates of suicide ideation. Hopelessness, alcohol misuse, interpersonal conflict, and impulsivity were examined as possible mediators in the relationship between suicide ideation and suicide. Finally, a sample of 221 service members known to have died by suicide was compared to a cohort of 884 service members known to be living at the time of each suicide death using a conditional logistic regression model to better understand the relationship between deployment and suicide. RESULTS: The sample for the analyses pertaining to suicide ideation (N = 108,412 of matched PDHAs/PDHRAs) consisted of77.6% Airmen and 22.4% Marines primarily male (87.5%), less than 35 years of age (76.6%),Caucasian (71%), Active Duty (87%), and with ranks of E1-E6 (75.6%). After adjusting for sex,age, and branch of service, deployment locations to Afghanistan and Iraq, exposure to wounded, killed, or dead as well as being physically injured while on deployment were found to be significantly associated with reported suicide ideation. However, number of deployments was not associated with reported suicide ideation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 03, 2012
Accession Number
AD1013078

Entities

People

  • Shannon C. Branlund

Organizations

  • Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Combat Injuries
  • Depression
  • Health Services
  • Iraqi-War
  • Medical Personnel
  • Mental Disorders
  • Military Medicine
  • Native Americans
  • Pain
  • Psychiatry
  • Psychology
  • Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

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  • Psychological Intervention/Treatment for Stress, Anxiety, PTSD, and Related Emotional and Cognitive Health Symptoms.