Demographic and psychiatric history characteristics for women who died by suicide, by group (perinatal, non-perinatal and matched living perinatal controls)
| Characteristic | Group; no. (%) of women* | Comparison; p value† | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perinatal suicide (n = 51) | Non-perinatal suicide (n = 1597) | Perinatal control (n = 255) | Perinatal suicide v. non-perinatal suicide | Perinatal suicide v. perinatal control | |
| Age, yr, mean ± SD | 28.4 ± 6.9 | 34.2 ± 7.8 | 28.4 ± 6.9 | < 0.001 | NA |
| Marital status | 0.02 | NA | |||
| Married or cohabiting | 27 (52.9) | 351 (22.0) | 0 | ||
| Single, divorced or widowed | 10 (19.6) | 755 (47.3) | 0 | ||
| Unknown | 14 (27.5) | 491 (30.7) | 255 (100) | ||
| Community size‡ | 0.2 | 0.2 | |||
| > 1 500 000 | 17 (33.3) | 678 (42.5) | 129 (50.6) | ||
| 500 000–1 499 999 | NR | 171 (10.7) | 13 (5.1) | ||
| 100 000–499 999 | 16 (31.4) | 409 (25.6) | 63 (24.7) | ||
| 10 000–99 999 | NR | 125 (7.8) | 14 (5.5) | ||
| < 10 000 (rural) | 12 (23.5) | 202 (12.6) | 34 (13.3) | ||
| Neighbourhood income quintile | 0.7 | 0.5 | |||
| Q1 (lowest) | 17 (33.3) | 479 (30.0) | 66 (25.9) | ||
| Q5 (highest) | 10 (19.6) | 266 (16.7) | 50 (19.6) | ||
| Psychiatric admissions in past 3 yr, median (range) | 0 (0–8) | 0 (0–30) | 0 (0–1) | 0.6 | < 0.001 |
| Psychiatric diagnoses in past 5 yr | |||||
| Psychotic disorder | NR | 329 (20.6) | NR | 0.06 | < 0.001 |
| Major mood disorder | 26 (51.0) | 978 (61.2) | 17 (6.7) | 0.1 | < 0.001 |
| Anxiety or related disorder | 38 (74.5) | 1357 (85.0) | 120 (47.1) | 0.04 | < 0.001 |
| Alcohol or substance use–related | 19 (37.3) | 545 (34.1) | 14 (5.5) | 0.6 | < 0.001 |
| Eating disorder | 8 (15.7) | 358 (22.4) | 23 (9.0) | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Personality disorder | 12 (23.5) | 417 (26.1) | NR | 0.7 | < 0.001 |
| Adjustment disorder | 14 (27.5) | 319 (20.0) | 8 (3.1) | 0.2 | < 0.001 |
| No. of psychiatric comorbidities | 0.6 | < 0.001 | |||
| 0 | 7 (13.7) | 174 (10.9) | 121 (47.5) | ||
| 1 | 10 (19.6) | 276 (17.3) | 100 (39.2) | ||
| 2 | 9 (17.6) | 298 (18.7) | 23 (9.0) | ||
| 3 | 25 (49.0) | 849 (53.2) | 11 (4.3) | ||
| Deliberate self-harm attempts§ | |||||
| Past 1 yr | 6 (11.8) | 258 (16.2) | NR | 0.4 | < 0.001 |
| Past 1–3 yr | 6 (11.8) | 171 (10.7) | NR | 0.8 | < 0.001 |
| No. of aggregated diagnostic groups in past 3 yr, mean ± SD | 1.10 ± 0.9 | 1.34 ± 1.3 | 0.70 ± 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.003 |
Note: NA = not applicable (groups matched on maternal age) or not available, NR = not reportable because of small n value (< 6), SD = standard deviation.
↵* Except where indicated otherwise.
↵† Continuous variables were compared using independent and paired t tests for unmatched and matched comparisons, respectively; categorical variables were compared using χ2 tests of association.
↵‡ For each group, the sum of data is less than the total number because of missing data or data that could not be reported because of small values.
↵§ Available after 2002.