William Atkins
Tuesday, 21 October 2008 23:13
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
From 1999 to 2005, CDC data finds Caucasian baby boomers are leaders in suicides in the United States, among a nation whose suicide rate has begun to rise for the first time in a decade.
A U.S. study in a December 2008 released article within the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that the rate of suicides in the United States has increased, on average, 0.7% per year between the years of 1999 and 2005. [Scientific American: “
Suicide Uptick: U.S. Rate Climbing”]
According to data from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (
CDC), which was used by the U.S. researchers, the suicide rate in the United States decreased by 18% from 1986 to 1999.
This past decrease is contributed to a coordinated public campaign on suicide prevention among teenagers and older persons, who were traditionally both at higher risk from suicides when compared to other age groups of people.
However, according to the new study, the overall U.S. rate for suicides went from 10.5 suicides per 100,000 persons, in 1999, to 11.0 per 100,000 persons, in 2005, an increase of about 0.7% per year, on average, and just under 5% for the six-year frame of time.
The study found little or no change in the rate of suicide in the 10-to-19-years of age, 20-to-29-years of age, and over-65-years of age groups of people.
However, the report made by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy Suicide (within the Bloomberg School of Public Health at The Johns Hopkins University, Maryland) emphasizes the fact that the suicide rate was much higher among white men and women between the ages of 40 and 64 years--basically, the Baby Boomer generation.
Page two continues the statistics on suicide rates in the United States, and the most frequent ways people are committing suicide.
