Trend of Suicide in Kermanshah during 11 years (2004 to 2014), Iran

Abstract

Suicide is one of the most important health problems which has dedicated a significant part of the energy and health care costs to itself. The present study carried out to investigate trend of suicide in Kermanshah province during 2004-2014. This is an analytical (cross sectional) study in which all cases died by suicide and documented in forensics of Kermanshah during 2004 – 2014 were investigated. For evaluating the trend for suicide, Poisson regression model was used and to calculate suicide rate, census data from 2006 and 2011 as well as Organization for Civil Registration were obtained. During the 11 years of study, 2799 people died in Kermanshah province by suicide; among which 1681 (60.1%) were men and 1118 (39.9%) were women. The average annual mortality rate was 15.77 per 100,000; that is, 12.81 women and 18.62 men per every 100,000 populations. The highest number of deaths caused by suicide was witnessed among the age group 20-24 by 24.91 per 100,000. The most common method of suicide death was self-immolation among women with 47.8% and hanging in men with 48.1%. Over these years, suicide by hanging was rising with almost constant rate; however, self-immolation was rising until the end of 2008 that it started to decrease. Although the deaths by suicide in west of Iran is lower compared to other countries; it is higher in this region than other parts of the country. Considering the suicide trend and young population of Iran, the overall rate of deaths by suicide will substantially increase in Iran in case no plan and appropriate strategy are provided.

Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences (2017) 6(2), 17- 24