IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v62y2006i12p3186-3196.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The geography of self-injury: Spatial patterns in attempted and completed suicide

Author

Listed:
  • Hempstead, Katherine

Abstract

This study uses hospital discharge data, death certificates and medical examiner data for New Jersey for 1999-2001 to investigate whether fatal and non-fatal self-injury exhibit similar geographic patterns. Findings show that the demographic characteristics of individuals committing fatal and non-fatal self-injury are quite different. Furthermore, attempted and completed suicides have a somewhat different geographical pattern. Municipality-level determinants of suicide and non-fatal self-injury were estimated in two separate models. While measures of isolation such as low population density and high proportions of households with only one member were predictive of completed suicides, non-fatal self-injury was related to unemployment and median age. Both types of self-injury were more common in municipalities which lost population between 1990 and 2000, and where divorce rates were high. Population-based suicide prevention efforts should be aided by the knowledge that although there are some similarities in the spatial pattern of completed and attempted suicides, there are some important differences in significant determinants.

Suggested Citation

  • Hempstead, Katherine, 2006. "The geography of self-injury: Spatial patterns in attempted and completed suicide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 3186-3196, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:12:p:3186-3196
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(05)00643-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mäkinen, Ilkka, 1997. "Are there social correlates to suicide?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(12), pages 1919-1929, June.
    2. Platt, Stephen, 1984. "Unemployment and suicidal behaviour: A review of the literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 93-115, January.
    3. Peter Congdon, 1996. "Suicide and Parasuicide in London: A Small-area Study," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(1), pages 137-158, February.
    4. Lester, David, 1995. "Explaining regional differences in suicide rates," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 719-721, March.
    5. Knox, K.L. & Conwell, Y. & Caine, E.D., 2004. "If Suicide Is a Public Health Problem, What Are We Doing to Prevent It?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(1), pages 37-45.
    6. Mitch Kunce & April L. Anderson, 2002. "The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on State Suicide Rates: A Methodological Note," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(1), pages 155-162, January.
    7. Andrew Zekeri & Kenneth Wilkinson, 1995. "Suicide and rurality in Alabama communities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 177-190, October.
    8. Ostamo, Aini & Lahelma, Eero & Lönnqvist, Jouko, 2001. "Transitions of employment status among suicide attempters during a severe economic recession," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(11), pages 1741-1750, June.
    9. Levin, Kate A. & Leyland, Alastair H., 2005. "Urban/rural inequalities in suicide in Scotland, 1981-1999," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2877-2890, June.
    10. Burnley, I. H., 1995. "Socioeconomic and spatial differentials in mortality and means of committing suicide in New South Wales, Australia, 1985-1991," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 687-698, September.
    11. Morrell, Stephen & Taylor, Richard & Slaytor, Emma & Ford, Paul, 1999. "Urban and rural suicide differentials in migrants and the Australian-born, New South Wales, Australia 1985-1994," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 81-91, July.
    12. Otsu, Akiko & Araki, Shunichi & Sakai, Ryoji & Yokoyama, Kazuhito & Scott Voorhees, A., 2004. "Effects of urbanization, economic development, and migration of workers on suicide mortality in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 1137-1146, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Julio Torales & Iván Barrios & Osvaldo Melgarejo & Juan Edgar Tullo-Gómez & Noelia Ruiz Díaz & Marcelo O’Higgins & Carol Maggi & Víctor Adorno & Alicia Medina & Jorge Villalba-Arias & Israel Gon, 2023. "Suicides among adults in Paraguay: An 18-year national exploratory study (2004–2022)," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(7), pages 1641-1648, November.
    2. Ferdi Botha, 2012. "The Economics Of Suicide In South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 80(4), pages 526-552, December.
    3. Miriam Marco & Antonio López-Quílez & David Conesa & Enrique Gracia & Marisol Lila, 2017. "Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Suicide-Related Emergency Calls," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, July.
    4. Thompson, Laura K. & Sugg, Margaret M. & Runkle, Jennifer R., 2018. "Adolescents in crisis: A geographic exploration of help-seeking behavior using data from Crisis Text Line," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 69-79.
    5. Lersch, Kim M., 2020. "Exploring the geography of suicide threats and suicide attempts: An application of Risk Terrain Modeling," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pearce, Jamie & Barnett, Ross & Jones, Irfon, 2007. "Have urban/rural inequalities in suicide in New Zealand grown during the period 1980-2001?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1807-1819, October.
    2. Hourani, Laurel L. & Davidson, Lucy & Clinton-Sherrod, Monique & Patel, Nita & Marshall, Maureen & Crosby, Alex E., 2006. "Suicide prevention and community-level indictors," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 377-385, November.
    3. Page, Andrew & Morrell, Stephen & Taylor, Richard & Dudley, Michael & Carter, Greg, 2007. "Further increases in rural suicide in young Australian adults: Secular trends, 1979-2003," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 442-453, August.
    4. Harriss, Louise & Hawton, Keith, 2011. "Deliberate self-harm in rural and urban regions: A comparative study of prevalence and patient characteristics," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 274-281, July.
    5. Schaede Ulrike, 2013. "Sunshine and Suicides in Japan: revisiting the relevance of economic determinants of suicide," Contemporary Japan, De Gruyter, vol. 25(2), pages 105-126, August.
    6. Bellanger, Martine Marie & Jourdain, Alain & Batt-Moillo, Agnes, 2007. "Might the decrease in the suicide rates in France be due to regional prevention programmes?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 431-441, August.
    7. Yamamura, Eiji, 2015. "Comparison of Social Trust's effect on suicide ideation between urban and non-urban areas: The Case of Japanese Adults in 2006," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 118-126.
    8. Kim, Myoung-Hee & Jung-Choi, Kyunghee & Jun, Hee-Jin & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2010. "Socioeconomic inequalities in suicidal ideation, parasuicides, and completed suicides in South Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(8), pages 1254-1261, April.
    9. Andrés, Antonio R. & Halicioglu, Ferda, 2010. "Determinants of suicides in Denmark: Evidence from time series data," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(2-3), pages 263-269, December.
    10. Gerard A. Hutchinson & Donald T. Simeon, 1997. "Suicide in Trinidad and Tobago: Associations With Measures of Social Distress," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 43(4), pages 269-275, December.
    11. Aysit Tansel & H. Mehmet Taşçı, 2010. "Hazard Analysis of Unemployment Duration by Gender in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(4), pages 501-530, December.
    12. Niedzwiedz, Claire L. & Thomson, Katie H. & Bambra, Clare & Pearce, Jamie R., 2020. "Regional employment and individual worklessness during the Great Recession and the health of the working-age population: Cross-national analysis of 16 European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    13. Eiji Yamamura, 2015. "Comparison of Social Capital's Effect on Consideration of Suicide between Urban and Rural Areas," ISER Discussion Paper 0933, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    14. Anyikwa, Izunna & Hamman, Nicolene & Phiri, Andrew, 2018. "Persistence of suicides in G20 countries: SPSM approach to three generations of unit root tests," MPRA Paper 87790, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Benjamin Austin & Edward Glaeser & Lawrence Summers, 2018. "Jobs for the Heartland: Place-Based Policies in 21st-Century America," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 49(1 (Spring), pages 151-255.
    16. Alberto Forte & Federico Trobia & Flavia Gualtieri & Dorian A. Lamis & Giuseppe Cardamone & Vincenzo Giallonardo & Andrea Fiorillo & Paolo Girardi & Maurizio Pompili, 2018. "Suicide Risk among Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: A Literature Overview," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-21, July.
    17. Kai Chen & Xiaoping Lin & Han Wang & Yujie Qiang & Jie Kong & Rui Huang & Haining Wang & Hui Liu, 2022. "Visualizing the Knowledge Base and Research Hotspot of Public Health Emergency Management: A Science Mapping Analysis-Based Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-23, June.
    18. Paola Solano & Enrico Pizzorno & Anna M. Gallina & Chiara Mattei & Filippo Gabrielli & Joshua Kayman, 2012. "Employment status, inflation and suicidal behaviour: An analysis of a stratified sample in Italy," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 58(5), pages 477-484, September.
    19. Peter Congdon, 2011. "The Spatial Pattern of Suicide in the US in Relation to Deprivation, Fragmentation and Rurality," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(10), pages 2101-2122, August.
    20. Allison Milner & Andrew Page & Anthony D LaMontagne, 2013. "Long-Term Unemployment and Suicide: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-6, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:12:p:3186-3196. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.