Alcohol and the Risk of Railway Suicide.

Dorota Lasota,Mariusz Goniewicz,Dagmara Mirowska-Guzel,Riyadh A Alhazmi,Amir Khorram-Manesh,Ahmed Al-Wathinani,Krzysztof Goniewicz,Witold Pawłowski,Attila J Hertelendy,Paweł Krajewski

doi:10.3390/ijerph17197003

Abstract

Suicide is one of the ten most common causes of death in the world. Of all deaths from suicide, 22% can be attributed to the use of alcohol, which means that every fifth suicide would not occur if alcohol were not consumed by the population. People under the influence of alcohol choose more radical and effective methods of dying by suicide, e.g., throwing themselves under a moving vehicle, such as a train. The presented analysis aimed to determine important risk factors affecting railway suicide in Poland and their relation to the state of alcohol intoxication of the victims, and the relationship between ethyl alcohol consumption and the phenomenon of suicide. Documentation obtained from the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw, in the form of death registers and forensic medical records concerning examination and autopsy, was analyzed. This made it possible to identify suicide victims from among pedestrian victims of railway accidents recorded during the period under study. The research was carried out using unidimensional and multidimensional statistical analyses with IBM SPSS Statistics, version 25. Sober suicide victims were statistically significantly older than victims under the influence of alcohol; alcohol concentration was correlated with the age of the victims—the older the victims were, the higher the alcohol concentration. A significantly higher number of deaths attributed to suicide by sober victims was observed in autumn compared to other seasons. Multidimensional analysis showed a statistically significant effect of age and season on the probability of dying by suicide under the influence of alcohol—this probability decreases with the age of the victims and is also significantly lower in autumn. The observed relationship between age and the presence of alcohol in suicide victims can be the cause of railway suicides. Knowledge of the mechanisms of seasonal variability of suicidal behavior can help to develop effective strategies to prevent railway suicides. It is necessary to improve the system of reporting railway suicides, as only reliable statistics provide the possibility of assessing both the scale of the problem and the effectiveness of actions taken.

Highlights

Suicide is one of the ten most common causes of death in the world, and the social and economic consequences of suicides are comparable to those observed concerning diseases
This study aims to determine important risk factors affecting railway suicide in Poland and their relation to the state of alcohol intoxication of the victims, and the relationship between ethyl alcohol consumption and the phenomenon of suicide
Suicide victims constituted more than 44% (n = 60) of the victims of railway accidents recorded in the studied period

Summary

Introduction

Suicide is one of the ten most common causes of death in the world, and the social and economic consequences of suicides are comparable to those observed concerning diseases. World Health Organization (WHO), over 800,000 people die by suicide annually, representing one person every 40 s [1]. Suicide is the 15th leading cause of death globally, accounting for 1.4% of all deaths. The global suicide rate is 11.4 per 100,000 people (15.0/100,000 for males and 8.0/100,000 for females) [2]. Suicide rates differ between different countries and geographical regions [3,4]. According to WHO data from 2016, Poland, with an annual suicide rate of 16.2/100,000, was ranked 22nd in the world [5]

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