I guess what we have to look at in terms of older veterans (I’m a 66 YO vet) are onset of later life health problems and also severe economic distress like a lot of us have seen in the last 8 years or so.
It would be interesting to see if those over 50 vet losses compare at all with the general population losses.
The VA study found that the percentage of older veterans with a history of VA healthcare who committed suicide actually was higher than that of veterans not associated with VA care. Veterans over the age of 50 who had entered the VA healthcare system made up about 78 percent of the total number of veterans who committed suicide - 9 percentage points higher than the general pool.
Read more at - http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/08/31/older-vets-committing-suicide-at-alarming-rate.html