Suicide attempts among activated soldiers in the U.S. Army reserve components

BMC Psychiatry

Table 4 Multivariable associations of active time in service, deployment status, and time since most recent mental health diagnosis with suicide attempt among activated officers in the U.S. Army reserve components^a,b

	OR	(95% CI)	Cases (N)	Total (N)^c	Rate^d	Pop %^e	SRE^f
I. Active Time in Service^b,g
1–4 years	1.1	(0.4–3.1)	9	255,609	42	11.6	34
5–10 years	1.0	–	10	330,010	36	15.0	28
> 10 years	1.0	(0.4–2.6)	28	1,608,828	21	73.3	23
χ²₂	0.1
II. Deployment Status^b
Never deployed	0.9	(0.4–1.8)	23	1,014,623	27	46.2	29
Currently deployed	1.0	–	12	517,412	28	23.6	25
Previously deployed	0.7	(0.3–1.6)	12	662,412	22	30.2	24
χ²₂	0.7
III. Time Since Most Recent Mental Health Diagnosis^b
No Diagnosis	1.0	–	17	1,881,817	11	85.8	11
1 Month	49.6*	(24.3–100.9)	17	39,817	512	1.8	540
2–3 Months	16.4*	(6.2–43.3)	6	37,206	194	1.7	189
≥ 4 Months	3.1*	(1.3–7.7)	7	235,607	36	10.7	38
χ²₃	124.3*

^aThe sample of activated Reserve Component officers (n = 47 cases, 10,972 control person-months) is a subset of the total Reserve Component sample (n = 70,970 person-months) from the Army STARRS Historical Administrative Data Study (HADS). All control person-months were assigned a weight of 200 to adjust for under-sampling
^bTime in service, deployment status, and mental health diagnosis were each examined in a separate model that controlled for basic socio-demographic variables (gender, age at entry into the Army, current age, race, education, marital status). All analyses also included a dummy predictor variable for calendar month and year to control for secular trends
^cTotal includes both cases (i.e., suicide attempters) and weighted control person-months
^dRate per 100,000 person-years, calculated based on n₁/n₂, where n₁ is the unique number of soldiers within each category and n₂ is the annual number of person-years, not person-months, in the population
^ePop % Percentage of the activated Reserve Component officer population
^fSRE Standardized risk estimate (suicide attempters per 100,000 person-years) was calculated assuming other predictors were at their sample-wide means
^gBased on the number of months a soldier served on active duty (e.g., 1–4 years = 0–48 months of active service; 5–10 years = 60–120 months of active service, etc.)
*p < 0.05

ISSN: 1471-244X