Global suicide rates on decline

SUICIDES have fallen globally by more than a third since 1990, according to a far-reaching analysis released on Thursday that highlighted profound differences in the number of men and women taking their own lives.

The World Hea lt h Orga nisat ion l i st s su ic ide a s a c r it ic a l publ ic healt h issue and estimates at least 800,000 people k ill t hemselves ever y year.

Although reporting of deaths from self-harm varies between nations, data models devised by the team behind the Global Burden of Disease – which tracks all known causes of death by country – show a clear downward trend in global suicide rates.

In resu lts published i n t he BMJ jou r na l, t he st udy est i mated t hat 817,000 people k illed t hemselves in 2016 – a slight increase of 6.7 per cent since 1990.

However, as the global population has boomed over the last three decades, the team found that the rate of suicide adjusted for age and population size fell from 16.6 to 11.2 deaths per 100,000 people – a plunge of 32.7 per cent.

“Suicide is considered a preventable cause of death and this study shows t hat we should continue in our efforts towards suicide prevention,” said Heather Orpana, research scient i st w it h t he Publ ic Hea lt h Agency of Canada and a collaborator on t he study.

“Wit h f ur t her ef for t s we cou ld ta ke f urt her reduct ions in suicide mortalit y.”

T he Globa l Burden of Disea se a na lysis, conducted each yea r by t he Institute for Health and Metrics Eva luat ion, a t h i n k t a n k pa r t l y f u nded by t he Bi l l a nd Mel i nda Gates Foundation, estimates morta l it y by cause, locat ion, age a nd gender extrapolated from hundreds of data sources.

W h i le welc om i ng t he over a l l downwards trend, the team behind

T hu r sday ’s paper wa r ned t hat in severa l regions of t he world suicide was still among t he leading causes of years of lives lost.

In 2016, 34.6 million years of life were lost globa lly from suicide – that is, the age when su icide deat hs occu r comp a r e d w i t h a v e r a g e l i f e expectancy in a given region or nation.

In addition, men were still more likely to kill themselves than women in all regions and age groups, apart from 15-19 year-olds, though the analysis did not speculate why.

“Mortality rates were genera lly higher for men but t here was considerable variabilit y bet ween men a nd women depending on t he age, a nd even t he cou nt r y,” Or pa na told AFP.

Globa l ly, men hugely outpaced women for su icides, s u f fer i ng 15.6 deat h s per 100,000 compared with 7.0 for women.

The st udy fou nd t hat t he overa ll globa l mortalit y rate, including all causes of deaths, had fa l len by more t ha n 30 per cent si nce 1990, somet hing often attributed to havi ng fewer people l iv i ng i n absolute povert y a nd better access to healt hcare.

Or pa na sa id t he fact t hat both suicide deaths and overall mortality fell in close proximit y suggested t hat suicide mig ht be bet ter t ack led i f t r e a t e d a s j u s t a not h e r i l lness.

“Sometimes we might look at suicide as a dif ferent k ind of health outcome than, say, c a rd iov a s c u l a r d i s e a s e or cancer, which are considered more traditiona l,” she said.

“But what t he similar rate [fa ll] may be telling us is t hat su ic ide may be si mi la r to other health outcomes and in some ways may be driven by similar factors.”

The WHO has targeted a 10 per cent cut in globa l suicide rates by 2020.

But the study authors highl ig hted huge v a r iat ions i n suicide trends on a countr yby-countr y basis.

Whereas in China the average rate of suicide deaths fell 6 4.1 percent si nce 1990, i n places such as Zimbabwe the rate had a lmost doubled in the same time-span.

“We are seeing what is an important reduction in global suicide mortality. But those reductions have not been consistent across regions, countries, sex or ages,” said Orpana.