GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF U.S. ACTIVE DUTY AND CIVILIAN SUICIDALITY AND CO-VARIATES: A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This quantitative study examines the geographic distribution of suicide rates within the United States among civilian and active duty military populations and seeks to identify significant covariate relationships that point to relevant public health, environmental, and economic factors that civilian and military leaders should consider in planning, preparation, training, and deployment of health system resources. Multivariate regression analysis techniques specify associations between rates of civilian suicide and rates of relevant co-morbidities, analyzed across U.S. counties. ArcGIS mapping and advanced statistical techniques visualize variation in rates of national military and civilian populations in ways that are more complete and informative than has previously been made available to public health practitioners, prevention planners, and policymakers. Significant outcomes include identification of localities indicating clusters of significantly increased localized mainland U.S. military suicide rates, enhanced visualization of U.S. civilian suicide rates, including low frequency counties, and significantly correlated environmental and public health sources of county-level morbidity.