The Suicide Rate in the Elderly Population of Iran between 2008 and 2014

Abstract

Background: We aimed to investigate the suicide rate led to death in the elderly population of Iran between 2008 and 2014. Study design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: The present study was conducted on all suicide-related deaths in elderly people (≥65 yr) during the years 2008 to 2014 reported to the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization. For data collection, legal medicine standard form was used and the cases were classified by age, gender, suicide way and time (year). The incidence of death from suicide was calculated by age and sex. Statistical soft-ware stata12 was used to analyze data. The significance level has been considered to be 0.05. Results: Overall, 1,601 suicide-related deaths were investigated throughout the country. The mean age was 70.36 ± 0.17 years. The incidence trend (per 100,000 people) of the elderly suicides in Iran indicates that successful suicides have been on the rise, rising from 3.7 in 2008 to 4.37 per 100,000 people in 2014. Conclusions: It is necessary to identify and treat suicidal important predisposing factors of suicide such as psycho-social illnesses including depression and also implement prevention programs and policies for this fast-rising population age-group.

Socio-demographic status and 12 years trend of completed suicide in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, during the period 2007–2018

“…Totally, the incidence rate of suicide has increased slightly during the study period from 2007 to 2018. The pattern of suicide trend in the present study is in line with the trend of all Iranian completed suicide cases reported by Razai et al [10].…”

“…In the present study, males have committed suicide more than two times than females. According to the WHO report in 2016, the mortality rate by suicide in males has been about twice that of females [10]. Likewise, the male to female sex ratio was 1.4 in the Zhong study, and suicide in men has been observed 40% higher than in women [21].…”

“…Likewise, in the present study, more than 61% of participants used the hanging suicide method. Evidence indicates the use of violent and aggressive methods for suicide growths the hazard of completed suicide 12 times [10]. Drug and substance abuse and also mentalneurological problems are other reasons for high suicide rates among males [25].…”

“…World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the average rate of suicide in Iran is 5.3 per 100,000 people and across the provinces mortality rate of suicide ranged from 2.2 to 19.53 per 100,000 persons in 2012 which majority of suicides has occurred in men (66%) [10,11]. The high incident of suicides in both sexes were occurred in the adult age groups (16.1 per 100,000) that directly affect Years of Life Lost (YLL) and also Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) [11].…”

“…There are many important risk factors for completed suicide including psychiatric disorders, particularly depressive disorders, history of suicide attempts or suicidal behaviors, physical illnesses, and lack of social support and personality aspects [12,13]. In developed countries, more than 90% of suicide cases have some grade of mental illness, and among Asian countries including India and China, almost 60% of suicides have suffered from psychological disorders [10]. In Iran, the most common ways of suicide and suicide attempts are medication overdose or poisoning and hanging.…”