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Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019

In many Western countries, including Australia, construction workers have been identified as being at elevated risk of suicide compared to other workers. A variety of suicide prevention initiatives have been implemented and expanded to reduce suicide in this occupational group; however, the net effe...

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Autores principales: Maheen, Humaira, Taouk, Yamna, LaMontagne, Anthony D., Spittal, Matthew, King, Tania
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9686251/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36424429
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24575-x
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author Maheen, Humaira
Taouk, Yamna
LaMontagne, Anthony D.
Spittal, Matthew
King, Tania
author_facet Maheen, Humaira
Taouk, Yamna
LaMontagne, Anthony D.
Spittal, Matthew
King, Tania
author_sort Maheen, Humaira
collection PubMed
description In many Western countries, including Australia, construction workers have been identified as being at elevated risk of suicide compared to other workers. A variety of suicide prevention initiatives have been implemented and expanded to reduce suicide in this occupational group; however, the net effect of these is unknown. Using 19 years of national suicide data, this study examined the suicide mortality of Australian male construction workers relative to all other working males, and compared suicide rates over time between the two groups. Age-standardized suicide rates were calculated for construction workers and those employed in other occupations. 2001–2019 trends in age-standardized rates of suicide mortality were analyzed by joinpoint regression analysis. The annual average percentage change (AAPC) measure was calculated for both groups to quantify change over time within each group, complemented by a pair-wise AAPC comparison of changes in trends between the two groups over the 2001–2019 period. Australian male construction workers' overall age-standardized suicide rate was 26.6 per 100,000 persons compared to 13.2 per 100,000 for male workers employed in other occupations (pooled over the entire 2001–2019 period). Over time, the suicide mortality rate declined in both construction workers and those working in other occupations; however, the decline in suicide mortality was greater in construction workers (AAPC: −3.0; 95%CI −4.0, −2.0) compared to other workers (AAPC: 1.5; 95%CI −2.1, −1.0). The AAPC pair-wise comparison showed a significant difference between the rate of decline among construction versus other workers over the 19-year study period (AAPC: −1.4; 95%CI 0.4, 2.5), confirming a rapid decline among construction versus other male workers. This study provides evidence of a decline in suicide rates among Australian construction workers over the last two decades. This decline may be attributable to the combined effects of population-wide, male-specific, and sector-specific suicide prevention efforts over this same period, suggesting that the continuation or expansion of such efforts may lead to further declines.
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spelling pubmed-96862512022-11-26 Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019 Maheen, Humaira Taouk, Yamna LaMontagne, Anthony D. Spittal, Matthew King, Tania Sci Rep Article In many Western countries, including Australia, construction workers have been identified as being at elevated risk of suicide compared to other workers. A variety of suicide prevention initiatives have been implemented and expanded to reduce suicide in this occupational group; however, the net effect of these is unknown. Using 19 years of national suicide data, this study examined the suicide mortality of Australian male construction workers relative to all other working males, and compared suicide rates over time between the two groups. Age-standardized suicide rates were calculated for construction workers and those employed in other occupations. 2001–2019 trends in age-standardized rates of suicide mortality were analyzed by joinpoint regression analysis. The annual average percentage change (AAPC) measure was calculated for both groups to quantify change over time within each group, complemented by a pair-wise AAPC comparison of changes in trends between the two groups over the 2001–2019 period. Australian male construction workers' overall age-standardized suicide rate was 26.6 per 100,000 persons compared to 13.2 per 100,000 for male workers employed in other occupations (pooled over the entire 2001–2019 period). Over time, the suicide mortality rate declined in both construction workers and those working in other occupations; however, the decline in suicide mortality was greater in construction workers (AAPC: −3.0; 95%CI −4.0, −2.0) compared to other workers (AAPC: 1.5; 95%CI −2.1, −1.0). The AAPC pair-wise comparison showed a significant difference between the rate of decline among construction versus other workers over the 19-year study period (AAPC: −1.4; 95%CI 0.4, 2.5), confirming a rapid decline among construction versus other male workers. This study provides evidence of a decline in suicide rates among Australian construction workers over the last two decades. This decline may be attributable to the combined effects of population-wide, male-specific, and sector-specific suicide prevention efforts over this same period, suggesting that the continuation or expansion of such efforts may lead to further declines. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9686251/ /pubmed/36424429 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24575-x Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Maheen, Humaira
Taouk, Yamna
LaMontagne, Anthony D.
Spittal, Matthew
King, Tania
Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019
title Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019
title_full Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019
title_fullStr Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019
title_full_unstemmed Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019
title_short Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019
title_sort suicide trends among australian construction workers during years 2001–2019
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9686251/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36424429
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24575-x
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