Presence of Suicide Prevention Content in Military or Veteran-Related Blogs and Forums

The Internet is a useful tool for communication and health information. Individuals use static information, online support groups, and “blogs” and “forums,” many of which have a military focus. Active military personnel and Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq are likely to be high users of the Internet and are also at high risk for suicide. This study examines the presence of suicide prevention content in military or veteran-focused blogs and forums.

We identified 100 common blog and forum websites using several search engine and conducted searches using key words to identify social support for veterans and active military. We evaluated the content of posts within each site and all provided links.Several sites abruptly disappeared from the Internet during our data collection period, leaving a total of n=98 sites of which n=76 (78%) were blogs, and n=22 (22%) were forums. Only 4 (6.0%) of blog sites had any link to suicide prevention help or information, and none of the forum sites. Nearly 40% of both blogs and forums returned results from searches for “suicide” but searches of any hyperlink or content for suicide prevention material was only in 6.0% of blog-related links and 29.4% of forum-related links. Blogs and forums can be useful venues for veterans to discuss topics of common interest and stay connected. These sites offer a potential alternative means for both identifying individuals at risk for suicide and delivering suicide prevention interventions to difficult-to-reach populations.