Suicide Was Leading Cause of Death Among US Surgical Residents, 2000–2021

A national retrospective cross-sectional study in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons examined mortality among 132,243 residents enrolled in ACGME-accredited surgical programs from July 2000 through June 2021. Researchers linked decedent records to the National Death Index and calculated all-cause and cause-specific mortality across 481,008 person-years.

There were 82 deaths. Suicide was the most common cause, accounting for 26 deaths (31.7%; 5.4 per 100,000 person-years), followed by accidents (20; 24.4%) and neoplastic disease (17; 20.7%). All-cause mortality was 19.1 per 100,000 person-years in 2000–2014 versus 13.6 in 2015–2021 (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.71; 95% CI, 0.43–1.14). Suicide accounted for 11 deaths (45.8%) in the later period, with a rate of 6.2 per 100,000 person-years (IRR, 1.27; 95% CI, 0.57–2.74).

Of the 26 suicide deaths, 16 (61.5%) occurred during postgraduate years 1–2 and 14 (53.8%) between July and December. The authors call for continued surveillance and structurally supported, transition-focused resident-safety and help-seeking strategies. However, the small number of deaths and wide confidence intervals limit conclusions about temporal changes. The descriptive timing findings do not establish higher suicide rates in particular training years or academic months, and the study did not evaluate preventive interventions.