Age Changes and Suicidal Activity in Iran Over the Past Decade: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

This review study fills an important gap by aiming to determine the age changes in attempted and completed suicide in Iran during the past decade. A systematic review of related articles in international and Iranian databases from January 2008 to January 2020 was first conducted and relevant studies were extracted based on established criteria. Results showed that the mean age of suicide in Iran is 29.8 (range 27.7 – 31.8) years old for men and 27.4 (range 25.8 – 28.9) for women (P < 0.0001). The youngest and oldest populations of completed suicide belong to eastern and central regions of the country respectively. Findings imply the critical importance of increasing awareness through educational programs and public health campaigns to increase awareness and reduce suicidal behavior in Iran.

Comment on the "Mortality Rate and Years of Life Lost Due to Burns in Southern Iran during 2004–2019: A Population-Based Study"

“…For example, research has previously identified individuals under 30 as the main group affected by complete suicide in Iran. 3 Interestingly, the results of the mentioned study are closely similar to the findings of these earlier investigations. However, Mirahmadizadeh et al specify the self-immolation cases as exclusion criteria.…”

Spatial heterogeneity in gender and age of fatal suicide in Iran

“…An earlier and recent systematic review from January 2008 to January 2018 showed that the mean age of suicide in Iran was 29.8 years (age range: 27.7-31.8 years) for men and 27.4 years (age range: 25.8-28.9 years) for women. 30 These findings demonstrate that suicide among Iranian women occurred at younger ages than men over the past decade. 15 , 30 However, identifying the exact causes of this heterogeneity is beyond this paper’s scope, and further research is warranted.…”

“… 30 These findings demonstrate that suicide among Iranian women occurred at younger ages than men over the past decade. 15 , 30 However, identifying the exact causes of this heterogeneity is beyond this paper’s scope, and further research is warranted. On the other hand, the age range reported was significantly lower than that in our findings (34 years).…”

“…Three reasons explain this difference. One is that our study included only fatal (completed) cases of suicide; secondly, the data were analyzed from 2016 to 2018, while the above review 30 included both fatal and attempted suicide cases and used data over 10 years (2008 to 2018). A final point is that this review included mostly province-level studies, while the present study was conducted on a national level.…”

Eating Disorders and Suicidal Ideation in Morbid and Non-morbid Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross-sectional Study

“…This finding underscores the importance of assessing eating disorders, especially in younger diabetic patients, to prevent morbidities. This result could be because of that younger Iranian people were more at the risk of suicide (29.8 for men and 27.4 for women as meta-analysis of Sharif Nia et al discussed (16).…”