An Examination of Potential Misclassification of Army Suicides: Results from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers

the Army STARRS collaborators

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Debate continues about the accuracy of military suicide reporting due to concerns that some suicides may be classified as accidents to minimize stigma and ensure survivor benefits. We systematically reviewed records for 998 active duty Army deaths (510 suicides; 488 accident, homicide, and undetermined deaths; 2005-2009) and, using research criteria, reclassified 8.2% of the nonsuicide cases to definite suicide (1), suicide probable (4), or suicide possible (35). The reclassification rate to definite suicide was only 0.2% (1/488). This low rate suggests that flagrant misclassification of Army deaths is uncommon and surveillance reports likely reflect the “true” population of Army suicides.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)257-265
Number of pages9
JournalSuicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
Volume47
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2017

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