Social closeness and support are associated with lower risk of suicide among U.S. Army soldiers.
Suicide Life Threat Behav
; 51(5): 940-954, 2021 10.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34196966
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
We tested the aspects of social support, unit cohesion, and religiosity hypothesized to be protective factors for suicide among U.S. service members.METHODS:
This case-control study compared U.S. Army soldiers who died by suicide while on active duty (n = 135) to controls of two types those propensity score-matched on known sociodemographic risk factors (n = 128); and those controls who had thought about, but not died by, suicide in the past year (n = 108). Data included structured interviews of next of kin (NOK) and Army supervisors (SUP) for each case and control soldier. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine predictors of suicide.RESULTS:
Perceived social closeness and seeking help from others were associated with decreased odds of suicide, as reported by SUP (OR = 0.2 [95% CI = 0.1, 0.5]) and NOK (OR = 0.4 [95% CI = 0.2, 0.8]). Novel reports by SUP informants of high levels of unit cohesion/morale decreased odds of suicide (OR = 0.1 [95% CI = 0.0, 0.2]). Contrary to study hypotheses, no religious affiliation was associated with lower odds of suicide (OR = 0.3 [95% CI = 0.2, 0.6]).CONCLUSIONS:
Perceived social closeness and unit/group cohesion are associated with lower odds of suicide. These results point toward social intervention strategies as testable components of suicide prevention programs.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Suicide Prevention
/
Military Personnel
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Suicide Life Threat Behav
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States