Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Aug 19;4(8):e005227.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005227.

Overall, gender and social inequalities in suicide mortality in Iran, 2006-2010: a time trend province-level study

Aliasghar A Kiadaliri  1 , Soheil Saadat  2 , Hossein Shahnavazi  3 , Hassan Haghparast-Bidgoli  4
Affiliations

Overall, gender and social inequalities in suicide mortality in Iran, 2006-2010: a time trend province-level study

Aliasghar A Kiadaliri et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: Suicide is a major global health problem imposing a considerable burden on populations in terms of disability-adjusted life years. There has been an increasing trend in fatal and attempted suicide in Iran over the past few decades. The aim of the current study was to assess overall, gender and social inequalities across Iran's provinces during 2006-2010.

Design: Ecological study.

Setting: The data on distribution of population at the provinces were obtained from the Statistical Centre of Iran. The data on the annual number of deaths caused by suicide in each province were gathered from the Iranian Forensic Medicine Organization.

Methods: Suicide mortality rate per 100,000 population was calculated. Human Development Index was used as the provinces' social rank. Gini coefficient, rate ratio and Kunst and Mackenbach relative index of inequality were used to assess overall, gender and social inequalities, respectively. Annual percentage change was calculated using Joinpoint regression.

Results: Suicide mortality has slightly increased in Iran during 2006-2010. There was a substantial and constant overall inequality across the country over the study period. Male-to-female rate ratio was 2.34 (95% CI 1.45 to 3.79) over the same period. There were social inequalities in suicide mortality in favour of people in better-off provinces. In addition, there was an increasing trend in these social disparities over time, although it was not statistically significant.

Conclusions: We found substantial overall, gender and social disparities in the distribution of suicide mortality across the provinces in Iran. The findings showed that men in the provinces with low socioeconomic status are at higher risk of suicide mortality. Further analyses are needed to explain these disparities.

Keywords: Iran; Pure inequality; Social inequality; Suicide mortality; Temporal analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of suicide mortality rates across the provinces in Iran.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Suicide mortality rates per 100 000 populations in (A) total sample; (B) quintiles (Q) of Human Development Index, 2006–2010.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scatter plots of Human Development Index and suicide mortality rates, stratified by year of study.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Lorenz curves of the distribution of suicide mortality in Iran, 2006–2010.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Patton GC, Coffey C, Sawyer SM, et al. Global patterns of mortality in young people: a systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet 2009;374:881–92 - PubMed
    1. Bertolote JM, Fleischmann A. A global perspective on the magnitude of suicide mortality. In Wasserman D, Wasserman C, Eds. Oxford textbook of suicidology and suicide prevention: a global perspective. Oxford University Press, 2009:91– 8
    1. Saberi-Zafaghandi MB, Hajebi A, Eskandarieh S, et al. Epidemiology of suicide and attempted suicide derived from the health system database in the Islamic Republic of Iran: 2001–2007. East Mediterr Health J 2012;18:836–41 - PubMed
    1. Sharif-Alhoseini M, Rasouli MR, Saadat S, et al. Suicide attempts and suicide in Iran: results of national hospital surveillance data. Public Health 2012;126:990–2 - PubMed
    1. WHO. Public health action for the prevention of suicide: a framework. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012