A longitudinal epidemiological comparison of suici

Authors: Maurizio Pompili Monica Vichi Diego De Leo Cynthia Pfeffer Paolo Girardi

Publish Date: 2012/01/29

Volume: 21, Issue: 2, Pages: 111-121

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Abstract

The objective of the study is to evaluate temporal trends gender effects and methods of completed suicide amongst children and adolescent aged 10–17 when compared with temporal trends of deaths from other causes Data were extracted from the Italian Mortality Database which is collected by the Italian National Census Bureau ISTAT and processed by the Statistics Unit of National Centre for Epidemiology Surveillance and Health Promotion CNESPS at the National Institute of Health Istituto Superiore di Sanità A total of 1871 children and adolescents age 10–17 years committed suicide in Italy from 1971 to 2003 and 109 died by suicide during the last 3year period of observation 2006–2008 The average suicide rate over the entire period of observation was 091 per 100000 the rate was 121 for males and 059 for females During the study period the general mortality of children and adolescents age 10–17 years decreased dramatically the average annual percentage change decrease was of −33 95 CI −44 to −19 for males and −29 95 IC −44 to −25 for females The decrease was observed for both genders for all causes of deaths except suicide For males the most frequent method was hanging 545 followed by shooting/fire arms 196 falls/jumping from high places 127 for females the most frequent method jumping from high places/falls accounted for 357 of suicides during the whole study period In conclusion this study highlights that over the course of several decades suicide is a far less preventable cause of death as compared to other causes of death amongst children and adolescents Our study demonstrated that suicide rates in adolescents are not a stable phenomenon over the 40 years period of study It suggested that rates for males and females differed and varied in different ways during specific time periods of this study National suicide prevention actions should parallel prevention measures implemented to reduce other causes of deathDrs Pompili and Vichi contributed equally to this study Drs Pompili and Vichi designed the study Dr Vichi provided statistical analysis and interpretation of results Drs De Leo and Pfeffer provided contribution in the interpretation of results and in drafting the paper Dr Girardi provided intellectual impetuous supervision and interpretation of results All authors contributed in drafting the paper

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