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Social Determinants and Military Veterans’ Suicide Ideation and Attempt: a Cross-Sectional Analysis of Electronic Health Record Data

By NLADA on February 11, 2020 • ( 0 )

By: John R. Blosnich and colleagues. Published by: Journal of General Internal Medicine. Published in 2019.

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A study funded by the VA National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans and published by the Journal of General Internal Medicine in November 2019 analyzed the relationship between adverse social determinants of health (including violence, housing instability, financial/employment problems, legal problems, familial/social problems, lack of access to care/transportation, and nonspecific psychosocial needs) and suicide ideation and attempt among veterans. The researchers found that:

Adjusted for mental health diagnoses, age, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, and marital status, Veterans who had legal problems were 1.86 times more likely to experience suicidal ideation and 1.57 times more likely to attempt suicide than those without legal problems.
Veterans with legal problems also experienced other co-occurring adverse social determinants of health, including violence (19.8 percent), housing instability (66.1 percent), employment/financial problems (43.6 percent), social/familial problems (16.1 percent), lacking access to care/transportation (19.1 percent), and nonspecific psychosocial needs (30.2 percent).