Healthcare Workers Are at a 32% Greater Risk of Suicide

In a recent study published in JAMA on September 26, 2023, researchers look into the mental health crisis among healthcare workers, noting that they have a 32% elevated risk of suicide overall. Although there are ongoing trends of mental health crises across multiple demographic groups, recent insight into clinician burnout and other mental health issues among healthcare workers has pointed to increased risks for this population.

“Our results extend earlier research from outside the United States that healthcare workers compared with non-healthcare workers have greater risks for mental health problems and long-term work absences due to mental disorders,” said Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, a professor at Columbia University and an author of the new study in a Columbia press release. “The importance of increased suicide risk of healthcare support workers is underscored by their growth from nearly 4 million in 2008 to 6.6 million in 2021.”

The cohort study used data from workers in the 2008 American Community Survey and linked it to National Death Index records. The researcher used age- and sex-standardized suicide rates from multiple types of healthcare workers, including physicians, registered nurses, other diagnosing or treating practitioners, healthcare technicians, healthcare support workers, and social or behavioral health workers. Using Cox models, the analysis produced adjusted hazard ratios for each group compared to non-healthcare workers.

According to the study, healthcare workers are at a 32% greater risk of suicide. Additionally, healthcare support workers had an 81% greater suicide risk, for an annual standardized suicide rate of 21.4 individuals per 100,000 workers.

Compared to non-healthcare workers, registered nurses are 64% more likely to commit suicide, with an estimated annual suicide rate of 16.0 individuals per 100,000 nurses. Additionally, suicide was 39% more likely in health technicians, 11% more likely in physicians, and 14% in social and behavioral health workers.

“Relative to non–healthcare workers, registered nurses, health technicians, and healthcare support workers in the US were at increased risk of suicide. New programmatic efforts are needed to protect the mental health of these US healthcare workers,” concluded researchers in the study.