The influence of exclusion criteria on the relationship between suicide rates and age in cross-national studies

Abstract

Traditionally, suicide rates increase with aging in many countries (Shah and De, 1998). However, exceptions to this observation are emerging. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1995 revealed that female suicide rates did not increase with age in Mauritius, Colombia, Albania and Finland (Shah and De, 1998). Suicide rates increased with age in Switzerland (Ajdacic-Gross et al., 2006), Brazil (Mello-Santos et al., 2005) and China (Yip et al., 2000), but there were smaller peaks in the younger age-bands. Suicide rates among Australian, New Zealand and white American males increased with age, but suicide rates for females initially increased with age, peaking at menopause, and declining thereafter (Skegg and Cox, 1991; Woodbury et al., 1988; Snowdon and Snowdon, 1995). Suicide rates among non-white Americans (Seiden, 1981; Woodbury et al., 1988), Indians (Adityanjee, 1986; Bhatia et al., 1987), Jordanians (Daradekh, 1989), Indian immigrants to the U.K. (Raleigh et al., 1990; Needleman et al., 1997) and some east European countries (Sartorius, 1995) declined with increasing age.