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Comparative Study
. 2012 Jun 12;184(9):1029-34.
doi: 10.1503/cmaj.111867. Epub 2012 Apr 2.

Suicide among children and adolescents in Canada: trends and sex differences, 1980-2008

Robin Skinner  1 , Steven McFaull
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Suicide among children and adolescents in Canada: trends and sex differences, 1980-2008

Robin Skinner et al. CMAJ. .

Abstract

Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young Canadians (10-19 years of age)--a disturbing trend that has shown little improvement in recent years. Our objective was to examine suicide trends among Canadian children and adolescents.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of standardized suicide rates using Statistics Canada mortality data for the period spanning from 1980 to 2008. We analyzed the data by sex and by suicide method over time for two age groups: 10-14 year olds (children) and 15-19 year olds (adolescents). We quantified annual trends by calculating the average annual percent change (AAPC).

Results: We found an average annual decrease of 1.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] -1.5 to -0.4) in the suicide rate for children and adolescents, but stratification by age and sex showed significant variation. We saw an increase in suicide by suffocation among female children (AAPC = 8.1%, 95% CI 6.0 to 10.4) and adolescents (AAPC = 8.0%, 95% CI 6.2 to 9.8). In addition, we noted a decrease in suicides involving poisoning and firearms during the study period.

Interpretation: Our results show that suicide rates in Canada are increasing among female children and adolescents and decreasing among male children and adolescents. Limiting access to lethal means has some potential to mitigate risk. However, suffocation, which has become the predominant method for committing suicide for these age groups, is not amenable to this type of primary prevention.

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Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Suicides among Canadian children and adolescents, 1980–2008, by age group, sex and method. AAPC = average annual percent change, CI = confidence interval.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Overall deaths by suicide among Canadian children and adolescents by sex and age group. Rates were standardized per 100 000 population* using the Canadian population in 1991. *Calculated using a 5-point central moving average.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Deaths by suicide (overall and by suffocation) among Canadian female children and adolescents. Rates were standardized per 100 000 population* using the Canadian population in 1991. *Calculated using a 5-point central moving average.
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