Brief reportIncrease in Suicide by Hanging/Suffocation in the U.S., 2000–2010
Introduction
Suicide was recently reported1 to exceed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury death among Americans. The increasing prevalence of suicide mortality poses a challenge to injury prevention efforts. Unreported are the changes in the epidemiologic characteristics of suicide, an understanding of which is critical to prevention. The current paper highlights changes in the methods of suicide in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010, particularly in relation to age and methods.
Section snippets
Methods
Data were extracted from the CDC's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS™).2 The ICD-10 describes deaths coded as X70 as “intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation, and suffocation.” In the current paper, the cause of these deaths is referred to as “hanging/suffocation,” given that suffocation means depriving access to air or oxygen, and a common means of accomplishing this in order to kill oneself is by suspension or hanging. The ICD-10 codes for suicide by
Results
In 2010, the 38,364 suicides in the U.S. reflected an overall rate increase of 16% since 2000, from 10.4 to 12.1 per 100,000 population (Table 1). Taken together, suicide by firearm, hanging/suffocation, and poisoning constituted 93% of suicide by all methods. Between 2000 and 2010, most of the increase in suicide was due to an increase in hanging/suffocation. The proportion of all suicide by hanging/suffocation increased from 19% to 26%, and that by poisoning increased from 16% to 17%. Suicide
Discussion
The current findings reveal that hanging/suffocation played a major role in the increase in suicide rates between 2000 and 2010. Similar increases through 2005 were reported among whites by Hu et al. in 2008,3 but few efforts have been made to respond to these changes. Recognition of the changes in suicide methods is important because of the need for preventive measures directed toward this growing problem.
The increase in suicide was evident beginning in 2001, prior to the economic downturn.
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