Age differences in suicide methods

What is it about?

Objective: There is not adequate research on suicide methods by age in Turkey. The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether there is any change in suicide methods by age over time and whether suicide methods significantly differ by age. Method: Secondary data about suicide from 2007 to 2015 were obtained from the Turkish Statistical Institute. The number of suicide cases was 25,696. Direct standardization method was used to calculate suicide rates. Line charts were plotted to reveal the trends in suicide methods by age. Then, one-way anova (ANOVA) test was conducted to test whether suicide methods significantly differed by age. Results: Among all ages, hanging was the most common suicide method, followed by firearm, jumping, intoxication, and cutting/burning among all age groups. Moreover, all of the other suicide methods increased except for cutting/burning among those aged 15-24 years, except for firearm among those aged 25-44 years, except for hanging among those aged 45-64 years. Among those aged 65 and older, suicide by hanging decreased, however, suicide by other methods overall remained stable. The results also showed that with increasing age, suicide by hanging, jumping, and cutting increased, while suicide by firearm and intoxication decreased. In addition, the results of ANOVA test indicated that except for intoxication, all other suicide methods differed significantly by age groups. Conclusions: Hanging, jumping, and cutting/burning were the most popular methods among older people, while firearm and intoxication were more popular among younger people.

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