The global prevalence of depression, suicide ideation, and attempts in the military forces: a systematic review and Meta-analysis of cross sectional studies

BACKGROUND: Given the wide range of depressive disorders, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in various military studies around the world, determining the exact prevalence of these disorders in line with health planning as well as care and treatment service designing for military forces can be useful. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to determine the pooled prevalence of depressive disorders, suicide thoughts, and attempts in the military. METHODS: The present systematic review and meta-analysis study was performed based on PRISMA criteria in 5 steps of the search strategy, screening and selection of articles, data extraction, evaluation of article quality and meta-analysis. International databases (PubMed (Medline), Scopus, Web of science, Embase (Elsevier), PsycInfo (Ovid), Cochrane CENTRAL (Ovid)) were searched using related keywords extracted from Mesh and Emtree. After screening and final selection of articles, data were extracted and qualitative evaluation was performed using the NOS checklist. RESULTS: The results of meta-analysis showed that the prevalence of depression in active military forces and veterans was 23% (%95 CI: 20–26%) and 20% (%95 CI: 18–22%), respectively. In addition, the prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempts in the military was 11% (%95 CI: 10–13%) and 11% (%95 CI: 9–13%), respectively. The prevalence of suicide ideation and attempts in drug-using military was 18% (%95 CI: 7–33%) and 30% (%95 CI: 23–36%), respectively. The prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempts in military consuming alcohol were 9% (%95 CI: 4–13%) and 8% (%95 CI: 7–10%), respectively. In militaries with AIDS / HIV, the prevalence of suicide attempts was 5% (%95 CI: 4–8%). CONCLUSION: Therefore, it is necessary to develop and design training and intervention programs in order to increase the awareness of the military, especially veterans, to prevent the occurrence of suicide and depression. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-021-03526-2.