“Such a Rash Act”: Wartime Experiences and Veteran Suicides after the Great War

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Suicide and Suicidality

Abstract

World War I exposed sixty million soldiers worldwide to armed conflict and significant psychological trauma. Despite popular assumptions of significant long-term effects of the conflict on veterans, suicide among returned soldiers has received little attention. To address this lacuna we carried out the first prospective cohort study of suicide risk in World War I veterans, following a cohort of New Zealand soldiers until death. Causes of death were ascertained by doctors and coroners. 32 of 1865 men (1.7%) committed suicide over 83,118 years of follow-up (Crude rate: 39/100,000 person years). Suicides were more likely to occur at early ages, accounting for 8% of deaths before 1939, and 11% of potential years of life lost before age 50. Suicide rates in this cohort were 1.5-2 times higher than among veterans of recent conflicts, and remained high throughout their lifetime, showing the significant long-term cost of the conflict on human health. Explanations of suicide by family and acquaintances revealed three key narrative themes: suicide as a “rash act” that family members did not accept; suicide as the culmination of a life course whose trajectory was altered by war; and finally suicide explained without reference to war at all. The majority of informants in the first 20 years after the war identified wartime experience as a contributing factor to suicide.

Authors

• Kris Inwood, University of Guelph

• Les Oxley, University of Waikato

• Evan Roberts, University of Minnesota