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. 2013 Sep 17:347:f5239.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.f5239.

Impact of 2008 global economic crisis on suicide: time trend study in 54 countries

Shu-Sen Chang  1 , David Stuckler, Paul Yip, David Gunnell
Affiliations

Impact of 2008 global economic crisis on suicide: time trend study in 54 countries

Shu-Sen Chang et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the impact of the 2008 global economic crisis on international trends in suicide and to identify sex/age groups and countries most affected.

Design: Time trend analysis comparing the actual number of suicides in 2009 with the number that would be expected based on trends before the crisis (2000-07).

Setting: Suicide data from 54 countries; for 53 data were available in the World Health Organization mortality database and for one (the United States) data came the CDC online database.

Population: People aged 15 or above.

Main outcome measures: Suicide rate and number of excess suicides in 2009.

Results: There were an estimated 4884 (95% confidence interval 3907 to 5860) excess suicides in 2009 compared with the number expected based on previous trends (2000-07). The increases in suicide mainly occurred in men in the 27 European and 18 American countries; the suicide rates were 4.2% (3.4% to 5.1%) and 6.4% (5.4% to 7.5%) higher, respectively, in 2009 than expected if earlier trends had continued. For women, there was no change in European countries and the increase in the Americas was smaller than in men (2.3%). Rises in European men were highest in those aged 15-24 (11.7%), while in American countries men aged 45-64 showed the largest increase (5.2%). Rises in national suicide rates in men seemed to be associated with the magnitude of increases in unemployment, particularly in countries with low levels of unemployment before the crisis (Spearman's rs=0.48).

Conclusions: After the 2008 economic crisis, rates of suicide increased in the European and American countries studied, particularly in men and in countries with higher levels of job loss.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

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Fig 1 Countries included in study (n=54). *Nineteen countries (Argentina, Aruba, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Kuwait, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname) had incomplete population data for study period in WHO mortality database; their population data were obtained from United Nations population database
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Fig 2 Map of study countries and their suicide rates in 2009
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Fig 3 Changes in unemployment rates and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 54 study countries
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Fig 4 Changes in unemployment rates in nine different regions (number of countries included in region), 2000-10. Data weighted by countries’ population sizes in 2009. Unemployment data for two American countries (Aruba and Guatemala) were unavailable
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Economic recession and suicide.
    Hawton K, Haw C. Hawton K, et al. BMJ. 2013 Sep 17;347:f5612. doi: 10.1136/bmj.f5612. BMJ. 2013. PMID: 24046157 No abstract available.

References

    1. International Labour Organization. ILO global employment trends 2010—unemployment reaches highest level on record in 2009. www.ilo.org/manila/info/public/pr/WCMS_124768/lang--en/index.htm.
    1. World Health Organization. Financial crisis and global health: report of a high-level consultation. WHO, 2009.
    1. Swinscow D. Some suicide statistics. BMJ 1951;1:1417-23. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Morrell S, Taylor R, Quine S, Kerr C. Suicide and unemployment in Australia 1907-1990. Soc Sci Med 1993;36:749-56. - PubMed
    1. Gavrilova NS, Semyonova VG, Evdokushkina GN, Gavrilov LA. The response of violent mortality to economic crisis in Russia. Popul Res Policy Rev 2000;19:397-419.

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