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Baylor University.

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

Abstract

dc:description.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.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
M.P.H.
Level thesis:degree_level
Masters
Grantor
Baylor University.
Year dc:date.issued
2020

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Pennington, Michelle Lynn, 1991-
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Ylitalo, Kelly R.

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
https://hdl.handle.net/2104/11033
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/11033

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Baylor University
Base URL
baylor-ir.tdl.org/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Pennington, Michelle Lynn, 1991-. Firefighters who died by suicide : an epidemiologic study of suicide means, sociodemographic and psychiatric risk factors, and other precipitating circumstances.. Masters thesis, Baylor University., 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/2104/11033