Analysis of suicide behaviors in the Navy active duty and reserve component population
Author
Blankenship, Neeta Serena
Shepherd, Kristin M.
Date
2015-03Advisor
Shen, Yu-Chu
Cunha, Jesse
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We analyze the role of service-specific and mental health risk factors in active duty and reserve component Navy enlisted and officer suicide attempts and deaths from 2002 to 2011. We estimate the effect of non-demographic, service-specific, pre-screening, and mental health factors through logit regression to determine their association with the occurrence of suicide attempts and death by suicide. We further evaluate how these risk factors differ between the active duty and reserve components. Results consistently found that diagnosed mental health conditions, specifically, depression and substance use, increased the odds of Sailors in all populations attempting and/or dying by suicide. Service-specific factors showed varying levels of significance across the different populations; however, those who were demoted and entry-level paygrades (E1-E4) in the enlisted population were at higher risk for suicide attempt and death. Deployment to a combat zone was associated with lower odds of attempting and dying by suicide for all populations except enlisted reservists. There were few significant covariates of suicide attempts or death among the officer population. The identification of common risk factors will aid in identifying service-wide efforts to determine the highest risk populations and develop tailored prevention programs.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Analysis of Suicide Behaviors in the Navy Population
Shen, Yu-Chu; Cunha, Jesse; Blankenship, Neeta Serena; Shepherd, Kristen (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2015);Since 2010, U.S. Navy suicides have been increasing, gaining considerable attention from the Secretary of Defense. Although each case is a result of a unique series of events, several observable factors can contribute to ... -
Analysis of Suicide Behaviors in the Navy Population
Shen, Yu-Chu; Cunha, Jesse (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2015);U.S. military suicides have increased significantly over the past decade and currently account for almost 20% of all military deaths. Effective suicide prevention efforts require better information to identify high-risk ... -
An analysis of the role of service-specific risk factors in active duty Navy suicides
Golliday, James D. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2014-03);This thesis analyzes the role of service-specific risk factors in active duty U.S. Navy suicides from 2002 to 2012. Through logit regression analysis, I estimate what service-specific factors are associated with the ...