Burden of suicide presented as one of the leading causes of death
Uncover facts or misrepresent statistics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19552070 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Finn Gjertsen (0000-0001-9318-5857, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, corresponding author), Silvia Bruzzone (0000-0003-2130-2158, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica), Clare Griffiths (0000-0001-5735-3104, Public Health England), Clare E Griffiths |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 010401-010401 |
| Publication date | 2019-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Global Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2047-2978 • E-ISSN: 2047-2986 |
| Publisher | International Society of Global Health (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.7189/jogh.09.010401 |
| PMID | 30479749 |
| OpenAlex | W2901149984 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 12 |
BACKGROUND: Suicide is a relatively rare incident. Nevertheless, parts of the literature on intentional self-harm behaviour state that suicide is one of the leading causes of death. We aimed to assess the evidence behind the statement that suicide is a leading cause of death across all ages, with reference to the methods of ranking causes of death. METHODS: Two sets of data were used: For the European Union (EU) we used cause specific mortality statistics from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) for the data-year 2014, and globally and for the WHO European Region we used data from Global Health Estimates (GHE) 2015. We used different sets of rules to select mutually exclusive leading underlying causes of mortality for Europe (EU28). We also present lists with estimates of leading causes of death globally, and for the WHO European Region based on the GHE 2015. RESULTS: leading cause globally, and number 14 in the WHO European Region. Looking at the differences by sex, suicide for males was ranked as the ninth and the tenth leading cause of death in two ranking lists for the European Union. For females, suicide was number 13 in the first and 23 in the second list, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Different cause lists and rules for ranking produce different leading causes of mortality. The quality of data can also affect the ranking. Our rankings suggested that suicide was not among the ten leading causes of death in Europe or globally. To ensure that ranking causes of death is not driven by political motives and funding considerations, standard methods and official tabulation lists should be used. The rankings do not necessarily present the causes of mortality of greatest public health importance
Cause of death · Economics · Environmental health · European region · European union · Geography · Harm · International trade · Poison control · Regional science · Statistics · Computer Science · Demography · Forensic Entomology and Diptera Studies · Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse · Mathematics · Medicine · Psychology · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
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| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |