“Summary of Past Suicidal Thoughts, Plans, Attempts and Deaths Among Those With Prior Military Service (2008-2020)”
January 2023
Data was collected using the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Public Use Files (2008-2020). Data was produced using “SERVICE” as a control variable. The column variable was set as “Year”. The row variable was set as “MHSUITRY”, “MHSUITHK”, or “MHSUIPLN”. Details on variables and filtering are found below. This data includes non-institutionalized veterans and active duty/reserve military personel. The data were weighted to represent the annual population of non-institutionalized veterans and service members who were experiencing each condition.
| Variable | Description | Years Available | Filtering |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Year in which data was collected | 2002-2020 | Year > 2007 |
| Service | Ever been in the military | 2002-2020 | SERVICE = “1-YES” |
| MHSUITRY | Attempted to kill self in past year | 2008-2020 | None |
| MHSUITHK | Seriously thought about killing self in past year | 2008-2020 | None |
| MHSUIPLN | Made plans to kill self in past year | 2008-2020 | None |
Additional data on veteran death by suicide was obtained from the Veterans Suicide Data and Reporting webpage. For this analysis, the “Data Apendix” for the years 2001-2020 was downloaded and the number of “Veterans Suicide Deaths” was obtained from the “Veterans” tab of the downloaded data. Please note that this data is inclusive of the veteran population only. This is different from the NSDUH data that includes all those who ever served or are currently serving.