© 1996 Oxford University Press
research-article |
Age-Period-Cohort Analysis of Suicide Mortality Rates in Spain, 19591991

*Departmento de Epidemiologfa y Bioestadistica. Escuela Nacional de Sanidad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III Sinesio Delgado 8, 28029 Madrid, Spain.
**Centro Regional de Salud Pública. Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) Spain.
Departamento de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Madrid, Spain.
Reprint requests to: Eliseo Guallar
BACKGROUND: Although there is evidence that suicide rates may be Increasing in Spain, formal epldemiological studies have been limited to specific cities or counties. The objective of this study was to investigate nationwide trends in suicide mortality from 1959 to 1991 in Spain, with emphasis on age, period, and cohort effects.
METHODS: Age- and sex-specific suicide mortality rates from 1959 until 1991 were obtained from official vital statistics tables from the Instituto Nacional de Estadfstica, the official registry of vital statistics in Spain. Poisson regression and graphical methods were used to model and estimate age, period and cohort effects.
RESULTS: Suicide mortality rates increased with age, with a proportional increment for each decade of life of 45% (95% confidence interval: 4546%). In both males and females, age-adjusted suicide mortality rates decreased from 1959 until the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1982, trends started to increase, returning to the levels of 1959 in less than 6 years. Cohort effects were small for cohorts bom prior to 1940. For cohorts born after 1950, suicide rates Increased markedly.
CONCLUSIONS: The Increase in suicide mortality in younger cohorts and the high rates of suicide in the elderly demand further investigation to establish causal mechanisms and preventive strategies.
Keywords suicide, age-period-cohort analysis, epidemiology
Revised 1 November 1995
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
D. GUNNELL, N. MIDDLETON, E. WHITLEY, D. DORLING, and S. FRANKEL Influence of cohort effects on patterns of suicide in England and Wales, 1950-1999 The British Journal of Psychiatry, February 1, 2003; 182(2): 164 - 170. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
