ArticleOccupational and environmental medicine2022
Suicide among Scottish military veterans: follow-up and trends.
Article in Occupational and environmental medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence and risk factors of suicide and suicidal ideation in veterans who served in the British Armed Forces: a systematic review.BMJ military health · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality, and suicide attempt in people with anxiety and stress-related disorders: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis of 165 studies.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2026Article
- Qualitative exploration of service users and social prescribing link workers of the Armed Forces Community social prescribing scheme in Cornwall.BMJ open quality · 2026Article
- 'One Is Too Many' preventing self-harm and suicide in military veterans: a quantitative evaluation.BMJ military health · 2025Article
- Observational study of the pre-service vulnerabilities, in-service exposures and post-service antecedents of suicide in veterans of the UK Armed Forces, 2007-2018.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Suicidal ideation in male UK military personnel who sustained a physical combat injury in Afghanistan and the mediating role of leaving service: The ADVANCE cohort study.The International journal of social psychiatry · 2024Article
- Veterans in crisis: Describing the complexity of presentations to a mainstream UK Veterans' mental health service.Journal of military, veteran and family health · 2024Article
- Mental health service use among Canadian veterans within the first 5 years following service: methodological considerations for comparisons with the general population.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2023Article
- Suicide after leaving the UK Armed Forces 1996-2018: A cohort study.PLoS medicine · 2023Article
- Older veterans associated with reduced risk of cancer: Retrospective nationwide matched cohort study in Taiwan.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe risk of suicide among UK military veterans remains unclear. Few recent studies have been undertaken, and most studies found no clear evidence of increased risk. We used data from the Trends in Scottish Veterans Health cohort to investigate suicides up to 2017 in order to examine whether there have been any changes in the long-term pattern of veteran suicides since our earlier study to 2012, and to compare trends in the risk of suicide among veterans with matched non-veterans.
methodRetrospective cohort study of 78 000 veterans and 253 000 non-veterans born between 1945 and 1995, matched for age, sex and area of residence, using survival analysis to examine the risk of suicide in veterans in comparison with non-veterans overall and by subgroup, and to investigate associations with specific mental health conditions.
resultsUp to 37 years of follow-up, 388 (0.5%) veterans and 1531 (0.6%) non-veterans died from suicide. The risk of suicide among veterans did not differ from non-veterans overall. Increased risk among early service leavers was explained by differences in deprivation, and the previously reported increased risk in female veterans is now confined to older women. Suicide was most common in the fifth decade of life, and around 20 years postservice. A history of mood disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder was non-significantly more common in veterans.
conclusionsVeterans are not at increased risk of suicide overall. The highest risk for both men and women is in middle age, many years after leaving service.
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