TY - JOUR
PY - 2016//
TI - Economic recession, alcohol, and suicide rates: comparative effects of poverty, foreclosure, and job loss
JO - American journal of preventive medicine
A1 - Kerr, William C.
A1 - Kaplan, Mark S.
A1 - Huguet, Nathalie
A1 - Caetano, Raul
A1 - Giesbrecht, Norman
A1 - McFarland, Bentson H.
SP - 469
EP - 475
VL - 52
IS - 4
N2 - INTRODUCTION: Suicide rates and the proportion of alcohol-involved suicides rose during the 2008-2009 recession. Associations between county-level poverty, foreclosures, and unemployment and suicide rates and proportion of alcohol-involved suicides were investigated.
METHODS: In 2015, National Violent Death Reporting System data from 16 states in 2005-2011 were utilized to calculate suicide rates and a measure of alcohol involvement in suicides at the county level. Panel models with year and state fixed effects included county-level measures of unemployment, foreclosure, and poverty rates.
RESULTS: Poverty rates were strongly associated with suicide rates for both genders and all age groups, were positively associated with alcohol involvement in suicides for men aged 45-64 years, and negatively associated for men aged 20-44 years. Foreclosure rates were negatively associated with suicide rates for women and those aged ≥65 years but positively related for those aged 45-64 years. Unemployment rate effects on suicide rates were mediated by poverty rates in all groups.
CONCLUSIONS: Population risk of suicide was most clearly associated with county-level poverty rates, indicating that programs addressing area poverty should be targeted for reducing suicide risk. Poverty rates were also associated with increased alcohol involvement for men aged 45-64 years, indicating a role for alcohol in suicide for this working-aged group. However, negative associations between economic indicators and alcohol involvement were found for four groups, suggesting that non-economic factors or more general economic effects not captured by these indicators may have played a larger role in alcohol-related suicide increases.
Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0749-3797 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.09.021 ID - ref1 ER -