Method-Specific Suicide Mortality Trends in Australian Men from 1978 to 2017

Noelia Lucía Martínez-Rives,Pilar Martin,Bibha Dhungel,Stuart Gilmour

doi:10.3390/ijerph18094557

Abstract

In 2017 Australia saw the highest overall suicide rate in the past 10 years, with male suicide rates three times higher than in women. Since the mid-1980s there have been major changes in suicide epidemiology in Australia with large shifts in method of suicide among both men and women. This study examined method-specific suicide trends in Australian men over the past 40 years by state. Suicide mortality data for the period 1978 to 2017 was obtained from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National Mortality Database and log-linear Poisson regression analysis was used to analyse suicide mortality. This study found large differences between states in patterns and trends in suicide mortality from 1978 to 2017. Hanging, gas and firearms were the most common methods of suicide in Australia. We found statistically significant increasing trends in hanging suicide among men in all six states. The study findings highlight the growing concern of hanging-related suicide in all states in Australia since the late 1970s. New suicide prevention strategies focusing on the ubiquity and ease of hanging as a method will be needed in order for Australia to reduce suicide mortality in future.

Highlights

IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
While the suicide prevention strategies of the past 20 years appear to have been very effective, alongside gun control measures, in preventing other forms of suicide, a new generation of strategies is needed if Australia is to maintain its success in reducing suicide mortality in the future
This study has limitations in that the results of the analysis by age groups show the percentage of men who commit suicide by state, but it does not provide data on the injurious method predominantly used based on race or ethnicity, but rather generally

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The prevalence of suicide methods differs between countries. Worldwide, hanging is the predominant method for both men and women, in high-income countries [1], except for the USA, where firearms are most often used as a method of suicide [2]. Mainly with pesticides, is the most common suicide method in Asia [3] and in other countries where pesticides are accessible and in low- and middle-income countries [4]. Jumping from a height as a means of suicide is common in highly urbanized areas such as Singapore and Hong Kong [5,6]

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