Study Highlights Rising Number of Older U.S. Men Dying by Suicide

Suicide rates among men aged 65 years and older in the United States have been steadily rising since 2007, according to astudy in theAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine. The report revealed that men who are White, aged 85 years or older, and living in rural areas may be at greatest risk.Sanae El Ibrahimi, Ph.D., of the University of Nevada and colleagues analyzed suicide data from 1999 to 2018 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) database. The authors analyzed the data according to age group (65 to 74, 75 to 84, and ≥85 years), race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian/Pacific Islander), methods of suicide, and the urbanization level (from rural to large metropolitan) of the county where decedents resided.From 1999 to 2018, 106,861 men aged ≥65 years died of suicide in the United States—an age-adjusted rate of 31.4 per 100,000 people. While the data revealed that suicide rates fell annually by about 1.8% from 1999 to 2007, the rates rose steadily by 1.7% a year for the next decade.“There are many potential contributors to the … shift [in suicide rates] around 2007, one of which could [have been] the start of the economic recession (i.e., the Great Recession) in the United States,” El Ibrahimi and colleagues wrote. “On the basis of their limited earning potential and h igh rates of unemployme...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: 85 and older American Journal of Preventive Medicine men race/ethnicity seniors suicide Source Type: research