article_snippet.sent: A new comprehensive study of 3.9million military personnel who served after 9/11 has found no direct link between deployment to a war zone and elevated suicide rates.
article_snippet.sent: It was certainly intuitive as the wars went on and suicides went up for people to assume that deployment was the reason, but our data show that that is too simplistic; when you look at the total population, deployment is not associated with suicide,’ said lead author Mark Reger.
article_snippet.sent: New study: Researchers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord looked at military records of 3.9million personnel who served after 9/11 and found no direct link between deployment to a war zone and elevated suicide rates .
article_snippet.sent: In 2012, Pentagon reported 320 suicides by active-duty service members; another 268 soldiers took another 268 soldiers lives last year.
article_snippet.sent: To understand the relationship between deployment and self-inflicted death, researchers reviewed military records for more than 3.9million active-duty soldiers and reservists who joined up between October 7, 2001 and December 31, 2007.
article_snippet.sent: Suicide rates were similar regardless of whether or not servicemen and women were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
article_snippet.sent: Suicide rates did not factor in veterans’ exposure to combat and the potential effect of traumatic events on the battlefield on suicide rates.
article_snippet.sent: There were 1,162 suicides among those who deployed and 3,879 among those who didn't, representing suicide rates per 100,000 person-years of 18.86 and 17.78, respectively.
article_snippet.sent: At home and abroad: Suicide rates were similar regardless of whether or not servicemen and women were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan Afghanistan .
article_snippet.sent: The lack of an association between deployment and suicide risk isn't surprising,’ she said.
highlights_snippet.sent: There were 1,162 suicides among those who deployed and 3,879 among those who didn't .
  