BMI and Risk Factors for Suicide: why is BMI Inversely Related to Suicide?

In 2002 & 2004 telephone surveys of American adults, participants reported their height, weight, & several potential risk factors for suicide. This study assessed whether body mass index was associated with the risk factors among 224,247 respondents in 2002 & 275,194 in 2004 after sample-weighted adjustment for age, ethnicity, region, smoking, & education. Alcohol-related risk factors tended to be lower with heavier body mass index among women, while firearm-related risk factors tended to be higher with heavier body mass index among men. No potential risk factors were consistently inversely associated with body mass index in both genders & years, making them unlikely mediators for the observed relationship of body mass index with lower risk of suicide. (58 refs.) JA