Background: To assess the incidence of suicides among Brazilian Federal Highway Police Officers (FHPO) between 2001 and 2020, as well as to describe their sociodemographic and occupational profile.
Methods: A retrospective study analyzed all suicides among FHPO of all Brazilian states between 2001 and 2020 based on personalized police record files.
Results: The average suicide rate was 18.7/100,000 persons per year. A total of 35 suicides were identified, of which 33 (91.4%) were by firearm. Most FHPO who died by suicide were male (94.3%), under the age of 40 (62.9%), working for 10 or more years (57.1%), married (65.7%), parents (68.6%), had health insurance (77.1%), and worked in alternating shifts (54.2%).
Conclusion: The suicide rate among FHPO is high. Due to missing data on age and gender, standardized rates were not reported in the current study, therefore a careful interpretation of the rates reported should be considered.
Keywords: Brazil; epidemiology; law enforcement; mental health; self-extermination.
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