Mental health and suicide: An ecological hierarchical analysis of U.S. counties and states

Kposowa, Augustine J. and Glyniadaki, Aikaterini (2011) Mental health and suicide: An ecological hierarchical analysis of U.S. counties and states. In, Opportunities and Challenges for Applied Demography in the 21st Century. (Applied Demography Series, 2) Springer, 289 - 308. (doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2297-2_16).

Abstract

Suicide is a leading cause of death both nationally and internationally (World Health Organization 2008; Nock et al. 2008, 2009). Recent statistics show that in 2000 there were an estimated one million suicides worldwide, a figure that translates into an alarming calculation of 1 suicide death every 40 seconds. Especially bothersome is the observation that the world’s suicide rate has increased steadily over the last 50 years. For instance, the male suicide rate rose from 17 per 100,000 in 1950 to 28 per 100,000 in 2000, and suicide now ranks as the world’s 13th leading cause of death (World Health Organization 2008; Stack and Kposowa 2011). Recent concerns have focused especially on the rise in suicide among youth and the associated rise in years of potential life lost (Stack and Kposowa 2011). The proportion of suicides among the relatively young to early middle age group (ages 5–44) rose from 40% of all suicides in 1950% to 55% of all suicides in 2000. World-wide, suicide now ranks as the third leading cause of death for the young (World Health Organization 2008). Given the increasing young age of suicide victims, years of potential life lost in suicides is much higher than for the top leading causes of death, cancer and heart disease (Stack and Kposowa 2011). For every completed suicide, there are family members and significant others whose lives are severely affected emotionally, economically, and socially by the death.

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Contributors

Author: Aikaterini Glyniadaki

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