Thursday, October 23, 2008

U.S. Suicide Rate Increases


October 21, 2008

According to Johns Hopkins School of Public Health,

U.S. Suicide Rate Increases

Largest Increase Seen in Middle-Aged White Women

The rate of suicide in the United States is increased for the first time in a decade, according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy. The increase in the overall suicide rate between 1999 and 2005 was due primarily to an increase in suicides among whites aged 40-64, with white middle-aged women experiencing the largest annual increase. Whereas the overall suicide rate rose 0.7 percent during this time period, the rate among middle-aged white men rose 2.7 percent annually and 3.9 percent among middle-aged women. By contrast, suicide in blacks decreased significantly over the study’s time period, and remained stable among Asian and Native Americans. The results are published online at the website of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and will be published in the December print edition of the journal.

1 comment:

Cheryll said...

I would submit that the decrease in some non-white population suicide figures is more an aspect of reporting than reality.

If you are a suicidal black or hispanic male, all you have to do is walk into the wrong neighborhood and shoot your mouth off. Or you can engage in some criminal activity, for which you can be shot and nobody will notice as much as if you had been white... Ditto gang activity that results in death.

And then there are drug ODs and car crashes, which also are rarely reported as suicides for any population class...