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Combining individual and ecological data to determine compositional and contextual socio-economic risk factors for suicide

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  • Agerbo, Esben
  • Sterne, Jonathan A.C.
  • Gunnell, David J.

Abstract

The social and economic characteristics of geographic areas are associated with their suicide rates. The extent to which these ecological associations are due to the characteristics of the people living in the areas (compositional effects) or the influence of the areas themselves on risk (contextual effects) is uncertain. Denmark's Medical Register on Vital Statistics and its Integrated Database for Longitudinal Labour Market Research were used to identify suicides and 20 matched controls per case in 25-60-year-old men and women between 1982 and 1997. Individual and area (municipality) measures of income, marital and employment status were obtained. There were 9011 suicides and 180,220 controls. Individual-level associations with these risk factors were little changed when controlling for contextual effects. In contrast, ecological associations of increased suicide risk with declining area levels of employment and income and increasing proportions of people living alone were much attenuated after controlling for compositional effects. We found no consistent evidence that associations with individual-level risk factors differed depending on the areas' characteristics (cross-level interactions). This analysis suggests the ecological associations to be attributed to characteristics of the residents rather than area influences on risk.

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  • Agerbo, Esben & Sterne, Jonathan A.C. & Gunnell, David J., 2007. "Combining individual and ecological data to determine compositional and contextual socio-economic risk factors for suicide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 451-461, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:2:p:451-461
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    1. Jakobsen, Andreas Lindegaard & Lund, Rolf Lyneborg, 2022. "Neighborhood social context and suicide mortality: A multilevel register-based 5-year follow-up study of 2.7 million individuals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Justin T. Denney & Tim Wadsworth & Richard G. Rogers & Fred C. Pampel, 2015. "Suicide in the City: Do Characteristics of Place Really Influence Risk?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(2), pages 313-329, June.
    4. Minjae Choi & Yo Han Lee, 2020. "Regional Variation of Suicide Mortality in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-8, July.
    5. Kyung-Sook, Woo & SangSoo, Shin & Sangjin, Shin & Young-Jeon, Shin, 2018. "Marital status integration and suicide: A meta-analysis and meta-regression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 116-126.
    6. Daly, Mary C. & Oswald, Andrew J. & Wilson, Daniel & Wu, Stephen, 2011. "Dark contrasts: The paradox of high rates of suicide in happy places," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 435-442.
    7. Thomas Maag, 2008. "Economic Correlates of Suicide Rates in OECD Countries," KOF Working papers 08-207, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    8. Hagedoorn, Paulien & Helbich, Marco, 2022. "Longitudinal effects of physical and social neighbourhood change on suicide mortality: A full population cohort study among movers and non-movers in the Netherlands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    9. Şenol Demirci & Murat Konca & Birol Yetim & Gülnur İlgün, 2020. "Effect of economic crisis on suicide cases: An ARDL bounds testing approach," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(1), pages 34-40, February.
    10. Chungah Kim & Youngtae Cho, 2017. "Does Unstable Employment Have an Association with Suicide Rates among the Young?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Cairns, Joanne-Marie & Graham, Eva & Bambra, Clare, 2017. "Area-level socioeconomic disadvantage and suicidal behaviour in Europe: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 102-111.
    12. Cheung, Yee Tak Derek & Spittal, Matthew J. & Pirkis, Jane & Yip, Paul Siu Fai, 2012. "Spatial analysis of suicide mortality in Australia: Investigation of metropolitan-rural-remote differentials of suicide risk across states/territories," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1460-1468.
    13. Jane Pirkis & Dianne Currier & Peter Butterworth & Allison Milner & Anne Kavanagh & Holly Tibble & Jo Robinson & Matthew J. Spittal, 2017. "Socio-Economic Position and Suicidal Ideation in Men," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-11, March.
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