Short stature and poor psychological performance: risk factors for attempted suicide among Swedish male conscripts

OBJECTIVE: To investigate potential risk factors of attempted suicide among young male conscripts without previous attempts. METHODS: A nation-wide cohort of young men in Sweden was followed to observe the occurrence of attempted suicide after military-enlistment examination. Information from the examination was linked with data from national hospital in-patient and other registries. RESULTS: 150,395 Swedish young men born during 1973-75 were followed for up to 2 years. One hundred and fifty-five people made suicide attempts during the follow-up period. Body height, suitability for being an officer and performance in a logic test at the examination were included in a final multivariate Cox regression model, and found to be significantly inversely associated with the risk of attempted suicide. CONCLUSION: The results suggest for the first time that short stature and poor psychological performance at conscription examination may be helpful to identify groups with increased risk of attempted suicide during 1-1.5 years after enlistment.