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High-risk occupations for suicide

BACKGROUND: High occupational suicide rates are often linked to easy occupational access to a method of suicide. This study aimed to compare suicide rates across all occupations in Britain, how they have changed over the past 30 years, and how they may vary by occupational socio-economic group. METH...

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Autores principales: Roberts, S. E., Jaremin, B., Lloyd, K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3642721/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23098158
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291712002024
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author Roberts, S. E.
Jaremin, B.
Lloyd, K.
author_facet Roberts, S. E.
Jaremin, B.
Lloyd, K.
author_sort Roberts, S. E.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: High occupational suicide rates are often linked to easy occupational access to a method of suicide. This study aimed to compare suicide rates across all occupations in Britain, how they have changed over the past 30 years, and how they may vary by occupational socio-economic group. METHOD: We used national occupational mortality statistics, census-based occupational populations and death inquiry files (for the years 1979–1980, 1982–1983 and 2001–2005). The main outcome measures were suicide rates per 100 000 population, percentage changes over time in suicide rates, standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) and proportional mortality ratios (PMRs). RESULTS: Several occupations with the highest suicide rates (per 100 000 population) during 1979–1980 and 1982–1983, including veterinarians (ranked first), pharmacists (fourth), dentists (sixth), doctors (tenth) and farmers (thirteenth), have easy occupational access to a method of suicide (pharmaceuticals or guns). By 2001–2005, there had been large significant reductions in suicide rates for each of these occupations, so that none ranked in the top 30 occupations. Occupations with significant increases over time in suicide rates were all manual occupations whereas occupations with suicide rates that decreased were mainly professional or non-manual. Variation in suicide rates that was explained by socio-economic group almost doubled over time from 11.4% in 1979–1980 and 1982–1983 to 20.7% in 2001–2005. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-economic forces now seem to be a major determinant of high occupational suicide rates in Britain. As the increases in suicide rates among manual occupations occurred during a period of economic prosperity, carefully targeted suicide prevention initiatives could be beneficial.
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spelling pubmed-36427212013-05-03 High-risk occupations for suicide Roberts, S. E. Jaremin, B. Lloyd, K. Psychol Med Original Articles BACKGROUND: High occupational suicide rates are often linked to easy occupational access to a method of suicide. This study aimed to compare suicide rates across all occupations in Britain, how they have changed over the past 30 years, and how they may vary by occupational socio-economic group. METHOD: We used national occupational mortality statistics, census-based occupational populations and death inquiry files (for the years 1979–1980, 1982–1983 and 2001–2005). The main outcome measures were suicide rates per 100 000 population, percentage changes over time in suicide rates, standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) and proportional mortality ratios (PMRs). RESULTS: Several occupations with the highest suicide rates (per 100 000 population) during 1979–1980 and 1982–1983, including veterinarians (ranked first), pharmacists (fourth), dentists (sixth), doctors (tenth) and farmers (thirteenth), have easy occupational access to a method of suicide (pharmaceuticals or guns). By 2001–2005, there had been large significant reductions in suicide rates for each of these occupations, so that none ranked in the top 30 occupations. Occupations with significant increases over time in suicide rates were all manual occupations whereas occupations with suicide rates that decreased were mainly professional or non-manual. Variation in suicide rates that was explained by socio-economic group almost doubled over time from 11.4% in 1979–1980 and 1982–1983 to 20.7% in 2001–2005. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-economic forces now seem to be a major determinant of high occupational suicide rates in Britain. As the increases in suicide rates among manual occupations occurred during a period of economic prosperity, carefully targeted suicide prevention initiatives could be beneficial. Cambridge University Press 2013-06 2012-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3642721/ /pubmed/23098158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291712002024 Text en © Cambridge University Press 2012 The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/>. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use..
spellingShingle Original Articles
Roberts, S. E.
Jaremin, B.
Lloyd, K.
High-risk occupations for suicide
title High-risk occupations for suicide
title_full High-risk occupations for suicide
title_fullStr High-risk occupations for suicide
title_full_unstemmed High-risk occupations for suicide
title_short High-risk occupations for suicide
title_sort high-risk occupations for suicide
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3642721/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23098158
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291712002024
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