A comparison between the OPCS and coroner's data on suicide and undetermined deaths in an English Health District

Abstract

Data on suicide and undetermined deaths were collected for the Rotherham Health District in South Yorkshire, United Kingdom, for a ten-year period from the Coroner's Office and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS). Certain discrepancies were detected. These included a delay in the recording of deaths by the OPCS, the selective inclusion of coroner's open verdict deaths, and the inclusion within the suicide figures of some deaths found later to be caused through homicide, as well as other minor inaccuracies. The reasons for the differences in the two sets of data and the implications for the accuracy of suicide statistics both nationally and locally are briefly discussed.