National suicide monitoring of serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force personnel: 2020 update

The reason for discharge from the ADF has previously been identified as a significant predictor of suicide among ex-serving ADF personnel, with medical discharge found to be associated with an increased risk of suicide (AIHW, 2018).

For the period 2002 to 2018 the rate of suicide in those who discharged on medical grounds was 66 per 100,000, which was higher than the rate for those who discharged for other involuntary reasons (36 per 100,000). The rate for those who discharged voluntarily was lower than both the former at 21 per 100,000.

Rates of suicide are not presented for females by discharge reason due to small numbers.

Figure 4: Suicide rates for 2002-2018, by discharge reason, ex-serving males

Source: AIHW analysis of linked PMKeyS-NDI data 2001–2018.

Suicides in ex-serving males and females by discharge reason over time

The number of suicides in ex-serving males by discharge reason are shown in Table 5. The rate of suicide was higher in those who discharged involuntarily compared with those who discharged voluntarily. However, due to the larger number of ex-serving personnel who discharged voluntarily, the number of suicides was higher among those who discharged voluntarily.

Those who were discharged involuntarily have been split into two groups for the purpose of analysis, those who were medically discharged and all other involuntary discharge reasons (e.g. disciplinary reasons).

n.p. Not published because of small numbers or confidentiality.

(a) Not all discharge reasons are included in this table, contractual/administrative discharges are omitted due to small numbers – hence the total number of suicides in this table does not equal 267

(b) From 2006 onwards, the ABS implemented a revisions process for coroner-certified deaths (such as suicides). This improved data quality by enabling additional deaths by suicide to be identified beyond initial processing (ABS 2018). For detailed information see Technical Notes.

(c) New ABS coding guidelines were applied for deaths registered from 1 January 2007. The new guidelines improve data quality by enabling deaths to be coded to suicide by ABS mortality coders if evidence indicates the death was from intentional self-harm (ABS 2018). For detailed information see Technical Notes.

Source: AIHW analysis of linked PMKeyS-NDI data 2001–2018.

Suicide rates in ex-serving males by discharge reason over time

The rate of suicide in ex-serving males discharged on medical grounds was consistently higher than the rate in those who discharged voluntarily for the 3-years periods between 2007 and 2018.This difference was statistically significant for the 3-year periods from 2011-2013 to 2015-2017.

The rate of suicide for ex-serving males who were discharged for voluntary reasons was similar to Australian males the same age for all 3-year periods between 2007 and 2018. The rate of suicide among this group was between 16 and 24 per 100,000 over this time period.

The rate of suicide for ex-serving males who were discharged from the ADF on medical grounds was between 52 and 94 per 100,000 for 3-year periods between 2007 and 2018. This was consistently higher than the rate in Australian males in the same age range. This difference was statistically significant for all 3-year periods between 2010 and 2018.

The rate of suicide for ex-serving males who were discharged for involuntary reasons other than medical reasons was also consistently higher than for Australian males in the same age range, though this difference was only statistically significant in 2012-2014 and in 2016-2018. Suicide rates in this group were between 35 and 48 per 100,000 in the 3-year periods between 2007 and 2018.

Data underlying this graph are available in Supplementary tables S5.2 to S5.4. See Data for a link to the tables.

Please note, data are subject to change: see Technical notes for further detail.

References

AIHW 2018. Incidence of suicide in serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force personnel: detailed analysis 2001-2015. Cat. no. PHE 218. Canberra; AIHW.