Objective To investigate demographic risk factors for selfimmolation patients. Methods In a case-control study, 30 consecutive cases of deliberate self-infl icted burns admitted to the regional Burn centre (Imam Khomeini hospital in Kermanshah province, Iran) were compared with 30 controls who were selected from the community and matched by gender, age and living area. All cases and controls were reviewed for demographic variables, including: age, gender, living area, family size, marital status, bearing and number of children, body mass index (BMI), birth order, employment state, educational status, early school drop-out and parent/guardian employment status. Results Two variables emerged as related to risk of selfimmolation. Being the fi rst or last child in family birth order was associated with increased risk of self-immolation. Moreover, among the married participants, having children was associated with decreased risk of self-immolation. The comparisons of other variables were not statistically significant. In multivariate analyses, none of the variables predicted risk for self-immolation. Conclusion This study suggests that being the fi rst or last child of a family might be a risk factor for self-immolation. For married persons, having children might serve as a protective factor from self-immolation. Other variables such as family size, marital status, number of children, BMI, employment state, educational status, early school drop-out and parent/ guardian employment status did not play a role as individually protective or risk factors for self-immolation.

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‫ﭘﺰﺷ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻮم‬ ‫داﻧﺸﮕﺎه‬ ‫ﻣﺠﻠﻪ‬ ‫ﮑﯽ‬ ‫رﻓﺴﻨﺠﺎن‬ ‫دوره‬ 19 ‫ﺷﻤﺎره‬ ، 10 ‫ﺳﺎل‬ ، 1399 of metropolitan-rural-remote differentials of suicide risk across states/territories. Social Science &

BackgroundSelf-Inflicted Harm is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have shown that there are different patterns of SIH among different racial groups. This study aims to describe SIH admission rates and patterns among different racial groups in Los Angeles and to evaluate whether admission rates have changed over a ten year period (2001–2010).MethodsData for this retrospective study includes all cases of hospital admission in Los Angeles with SIH based on the ICD-9:E950–E958 for 2001–2010. ICD-9 codes for schizophrenia, episodic mood disorders, depressive, anxiety, personality adjustment, sexual and gender identity disorders, as well as alcoholism and substance abuses were used.ResultsA total of 2459 patients with SIH were identified. African Americans(AA) had the highest ten year average of SIH rate (11.6/100,000) followed by Caucasians(CC) (8.44/100,000), Latinos(LT) (6.21/100,000) and Asians(AS) (1.64/100,000). The SIH admission rates remained steady throughout the 10 year study period (P value = 0.3064) and none of the racial groups showed a significant change (P value CC = 0.2445, AA = 0.2120, LT = 0.6898, AS = 0.1237). Median age of SIH was significantly lower in Latinos (LT = 28 versus CC = 43, AA = 39 and AS = 40 (P value < 0.001). Overall, episodic mood disorders where the most common psychiatric comorbidity among all racial groups. However, AAs had the lowest probability of episodic mood disorder comorbidity (CC = 55.87%, AA = 39.52%, LT = 41.84%, AS = 47.66%, P value < 0.001) and the highest probability of schizophrenia comorbidity (CC = 10.47%, AA = 20.84%, LT = 8.00%, AS = 10.49%, P value < 0.001).ConclusionsSIH admission rates as well as the gap between different racial groups have remained steady during the study period which can raise concerns about the effectiveness of programs aimed at decreasing SIH admission rates and/or reducing interracial disparity.