Original title: Global, regional, and national burden of suicide mortality 1990 to 2016: systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016
Researchers compared suicide deaths across 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016. The number of deaths rose to 817,000 in 2016, but the age-adjusted rate fell by 32.7%. Age adjustment helps compare places and years with different age distributions. Rates varied by place, age, and sex; men had higher rates than women in nearly every age group, except ages 15 to 19.
Imagine comparing how many people in two towns need winter coats. One town has many more older residents, so its total can be higher even if each age group needs coats less often. In this paper, the total deaths are like the coat count, while the age-adjusted rate helps compare places with different age mixes. That reveals how the rate can fall even as the overall count rises.
The findings show why counting deaths alone can mislead: the global total increased, while the rate adjusted for population age decreased. For people planning suicide prevention, the large differences by location, age, and sex point to the need to focus on populations with higher rates.
The abstract reports estimates and patterns from 1990 to 2016, but does not explain causes of the trends or establish why rates differ between populations. It does not describe specific prevention strategies or evaluate whether they work.
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Global, regional, and national burden of suicide mortality 1990 to 2016: systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016 — Mohsen Naghavi — BMJ — doi:10.1136/bmj.l94
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.