Statistical Issues in the Identification of Risk Factors for Suicidal Behavior: The Application of Survival Analysis

Survival analytic techniques (SAT) are discussed in which the time until a suicide attempt from a specific point, such as prior attempt or onset of illness, is also examined. One SAT, Cox’s proportional hazards model, is particularly informative because several covariates can be incorporated. Illustrative analyses estimate the significance of different risk factors & demonstrate that there is a 32% increase in the relative risk of a suicide attempt associated with each prior attempt.