Relationship of the high proportion of suicidal acts involving ingestion of pesticides to the low male-to-female ratio of suicide rates in China.

CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of medically serious suicidal behaviour among females in rural China was similar to that reported in HICs, but the case-fatality was much higher, primarily because most suicidal acts involved the ingestion of pesticides, which had a higher case-fatality than methods commonly used by women in HICs. These findings do not support sociological explanations for the relatively high female suicide rate in China but, rather, suggest that gender-specific method choice and the case-fatality of different methods are more important determinants of the demographic profile of suicide rates. Further research that involves ongoing monitoring of the changing incidence, demographic profile and case-fatality of different suicidal methods in urban and rural parts of both LMICs and HICs is needed to confirm this hypothesis. PMID: 32299524 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci Source Type: research