Firefighters who died by suicide : an epidemiologic study of suicide means, sociodemographic and psychiatric risk factors, and other precipitating circumstances.

Abstract

Suicide is a significant and growing public health problem and it is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. Firefighters, in particular, are thought to be at high risk for suicide due to chronic workplace stress. In recent years, more firefighters have died from suicide than in the line of duty. The purpose of this thesis was to describe suicides among firefighters using national suicide death data in an effort to inform tailored suicide prevention and screening efforts among first responders with the goal of lowering suicide mortality among the fire service. Data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (2003 – 2017) for 722 firefighters and 192,430 non-firefighters was analyzed. Results show differences between sociodemographic, risk factor, and toxicological profiles of firefighter and non-firefighter decedents and that sociodemographic and risk factors among firefighters differ by suicide means.