The effect of macroeconomic variables on suicide

Seetal Dodd · Margaret J. Henry

131 citations0/0 files storedPsychological Medicine

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Suicide and Self-Harm Studies Employment and Welfare Studies Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There are a large number of factors mediating suicide. Many studies have searched for a direct causal relationship between economic hardship and suicide, however, findings have been varied. METHOD: Suicide data was obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the period between January 1968 and August 2002. These were correlated with a suite of macroeconomic data including housing loan interest rates, unemployment rates, days lost to industrial disputes, Consumer Price Index, gross domestic product, and the Consumer Sentiment Index. RESULTS: A total of 51845 males and 16327 females committed suicide between these dates. There were significant associations between suicide rates and eleven macroeconomic indicators for both genders in at least one age range. Data was divided into male and female and five age ranges and pooled ages. Analyses were conducted on these 132 datasets resulting in 80 significant findings. The data was generally stronger for indices measuring economic performance than indices measuring consumers' perceptions of the state of the economy. A striking difference between male and female trends was seen. Generally, male suicide rates increased with markers of economic adversity, while the opposite pattern was seen in females. There were significantly different patterns in age-stratified data, with for example higher housing loan interest rates having a positive association with suicide in younger people and a negative association in older age groups. CONCLUSION: Macroeconomic trends are significantly associated with suicide. The patterns in males and females are very different, and there are further substantial age-related differences.

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References

2003Unemployment and suicide. Evidence for a causal association?2004Psychiatric Diagnoses and Suicide: Revisiting the Evidence 2000Gender differences in risk factors for suicide in Denmark 2003Why are suicide rates rising in young men but falling in the elderly?—a time-series analysis of trends in England and Wales 1950–1998 1999Ecological study of social fragmentation, poverty, and suicide 2004Suicide at 50 years of age and older: perceived physical illness, family discord and financial strain 1997Precipitating Factors and Life Events in Serious Suicide Attempts Among Youths Aged 13 Through 24 Years 1999The neurobiology of suicide risk: a review for the clinician.

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