Strengthening the Validity of Population-based Suicide Rate Comparisons: an Illustration Using U.S. Military and Civilian Data

The objectives of this study were to generate precise estimates of suicide rates in the military while controlling for factors contributing to rate variability, & to develop a simple methodology for the determination of statistically derived thresholds for detecting significant rate changes. Suicide rate estimates were calculated for the military population & each service branch over 11 years, directly standardized to the 2000 United States population. Military rates were highly comparable across branches & were approximately 20% lower than the civilian rate. (45 refs)