Number of suicides in Spain: Differences between data from the Spanish Statistical Office and the Institutes of Legal Medicine

Abstract

Background and objectivesTo be able to prevent suicides. The exact magnitude of suicides must be known in order to prevent them. There is evidence that data provided on the number of suicides by the Spanish Statistical Office (Instituto Nacional de Estadística [INE]) differs from that identified by forensic pathologists. This paper aims to determine whether the INE data are the same as those recorded by the agencies responsible for conducting autopsies in Spain (IML), and to calculate the number of missing cases. MethodIML was requested to provide the number of suicides in a 5-year period (2006–2010) and this was compared with those offered by INE in its site. A new rate of suicides per 100,000 was obtained and used to calculate the number of suicides in Spain. ResultsFor every year of the studied period, the number of suicides reported by the INE was lower than that obtained directly from the IML. Using the highest annual suicide rate registered by province and the total number, a count was obtained of identified suicides that for some reason had not been recorded in the INE or the IML data. Based on these figures, the mean rate of suicides per 100,000 was 0.97 (SD 0.10) higher than official INE data, which indicates a mean loss of 443.86 (SD 46.72) cases reported each year. Possible factors that may influence the missing recorded cases are discussed. ConclusionsAccording to the results, there is a discrepancy between INE and IML about the number of suicides in Spain. Neither of the two sources can be considered more reliable than the other.