Demographic and Social Correlates of Suicide in the Czech Republic

Abstract

In this article the authors review the trends & differentials in mortality from self-inflicted injury & poisoning in the Czech Republic between the early 1970s & the present in terms of their socio-economic & demographic associations. They describe the sources of data on suicide & explore the possible extent of under-reporting of deaths from suicide, & they examine the differences in suicide incidence by age & sex. With the decline in mortality from suicide, the male/female ratio of suicide rates increased from about 2.6 in the early 1970s to around 4.0 in recent years. Suicide rates increase steadily with age, & this pattern did not noticeably change during the period reviewed. The age specific suicide rates of older men & women declined more than the rates for younger people. As in other societies, married men & women have the lowest suicide rates; in contrast, divorce puts both men & women at the greatest risk of suicide. The authors attempt to investigate the social correlates of suicide by analysing the variation in suicide rates among districts in the Czech Republic & selected socio-economic & demographic characteristics of the district populations. Stepwise regression analysis is used to identify three independent variables that explain 50% of the variation in suicide rates among districts: the abortion ratio, the percentage of locally born population, & the percentage of adults with limited education.