Resource Tag: ACCURACY

Death registration systems in rural China are in a developmental stage. The Disease Surveillance Points (DSP) system provides the only nationally representative information on causes of death. In this system, there are no standard procedures or instruments for ascertaining causes of death; hence available statistics require careful evaluation before use. Contact us for a copy […]

Both state & federal civil law require mandatory procedures in the event of occupational death. Any deviation from these procedures can result in civil monetary penalties & criminal charges. Statutory law & recent case law provide the legal foundation for development of mandatory police suicide reporting procedures. Using the occupational death reporting procedures outlined by […]

In this editorial, the author provides a general discussion of factors contributing to suicide rates around the world. There is also a brief discussion of prevention strategies. (32 refs.)

In this letter to the editor, the authors discuss suicide among students at Beijing University. Earlier in 2007, five suicides happened within a period of 8 days – the deaths coincided with official statements from the Ministry of Education on the relatively low rate of suicide among Chinese university students. The effect of the one-child […]

The authors argue from welfare economics there is a legitimate economic justification for governments to be concerned with suicide. However, the purpose of this paper is to show the usefulness of employing an alternative measure of suicide – potential years of life lost – rather than a count of the number of suicides. It is […]

Accurate statistics are vital for appropriately targeted prevention strategies & research, costing of suicide, & to combat associated stigma. Underreporting of Australian suicide rates probably grew from 2002-2006. Systemic reasons for undercounting include absence of a central authority for producing mortality data; inconsistent coronial process for determining intent; collection & coding methods that are problematic […]

This study explored the decision-making processes of medical examiners in the determination of child suicide. 94 American medical examiners completed a survey regarding those factors considered when making a child suicide determination, sources of information used, & considerations in acccident versus suicide classifications. Well-known risk factors such as suicide notes were considered by virtually all […]

In this editorial, the authors discuss issues associated with Australian suicide statistics. Publication deadlines for reporting causes of death not yet finalised by the coroner & different methods employed by different jurisdictions may have disguised Australia’s true suicide rate. (11 refs.)

This paper applies 2 different methods of measuring suicide data: the conventional age-standardized suicide (count) rate & the alternative rate, potential years of life lost. Both measures were applied to suicide data for Queensland, Australia since 1920. The measures were also applied to deaths due to circulatory diseases, cancers, & motor vehicle accidents. The two […]

The reporting pathways & statistics between relevant stakeholders for reporting suicides & undetermined deaths in Cornwall were evaluated. The correlation of the numbers provided for suicides & open verdicts given by different national & regional agencies were checked. Results show the data transfer between the relevant agencies can be inaccurate. These inaccuracies not only prevent […]

In the absence of any measurable outome in psychiatry, suicide is now regarded as an outcome measure in Mental Health Services in the United Kingdom. The National Service Framework has set the reduction of the suicide rate by 20 per cent by 2010 as a national priority. This article examines how reliable suicide is as […]

This cross-sectional study uses multiple cause-of-death data from the American National Center for Health Statistics to assess whether race/ethnicity, psychiatric comorbidity documentation, & other decedent characteristics were associated with differential potential for suicide misclassification. Subjects were 105,946 white, black, & Hispanic residents, age 15 & older, who died between 2003-2005 & whose deaths were classified […]

The relationship between pure elderly suicide rates & rates of accidental deaths & undetermined deaths in the elderly across different countries was examined using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Complete data sets were available for 49 countries. There was no significant correlation between pure suicide rates & rates of accidental deaths & undetermined deaths in males, aged […]

This study updated age & sex suicide rates in Italy, evaluated the methods of suicide; considered the effect of underreporting on suicide rates; compared age-adjusted rates of suicide; & examined some possible causes for the misclassification of suicide. Temporal trends, from 1980-2002, were analyzed using joinpoint regression. Suicide rates decreased by 10.5 percent for men […]

This report investigated deaths occurring in 2004 using cases extracted from the National Coroners Information System as at early 2008. Comparisons were made using data added from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, including Underlying Causes of Death codes, & with aggregate data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics mortality data files. The comparisons indicated that […]

Durkheim’s nineteenth-century analysis of national suicide rates dismissed prior concerns about mortality data fidelity. Over the intervening century, evidence documenting various types of error in suicide data has only mounted & surprising levels of such error continue to be routinely uncovered. Yet the annual suicide rate remains the most widely used population-level suicide metric troday. […]

This study sought to identify cause-of-death categories in which suicides might be misclassified in Taiwan. Secular trends, 1971-2007, were plotted in gender- & method-specific rates of death classified as suicide, undetermined intent, & accident for the Taiwanese population aged 15 years & older & compared the gender, age, & marital status profiles in these 3 […]

The published literature on police suicide contains serious measurement problems that undermine understanding, including: unreliability of small samples, lack of statistical significance testing, comparison of different time periods, use of different data sources, use of different summary measures, comparison to inappropriate norms, & misclassification of suicides as accidents. The authors suggest solutions for these problem […]

The study presented in this chapter reviewed data from 89 sheriff & police departments in Illinois, Indiana, & Minnesota. Six questions arising from the results of the data were discussed. Nine suicides were reported in the 89 departments, representing 3,736 officers from 1980-1998. There was a 0.0004% yearly average difference between the police suicides & […]

Twice as many peace officers reportedly die by suicide as are killed in the line of duty. Has suicide among law enforcement become an epidemic? If so, what is the cause? More important, what is the cure? Many obstacles interfere with research on law enforcement suicide, including the natural reticence of families & law enforcement […]

Emergency department data may underestimate deliberate self-harm if some records that are coded “undetermined” actually represent deliberate self-harm. Data from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System were utilized. A total of 24,437 Ontario emergency department records for 2001/2002 coded deliberate self-harm or undetermined were analyzed. For every two emergency department presentations coded deliberate self-harm, another […]

The aim of this essay is to present an overview of some of the topics & issues which are present in the interaction of suicide & culture. Topics discussed include: societal & cultural suicide rates; culture & the individual suicide; the impact of a changing culture; the assumption of cultural invariability; subcultures; gender, class, & […]

This chapter presents current perspectives on police suicide & offers suggestions for prevention & future research. Issues of discussion are theories, present research & its limitations, validity of police suicide rates, suicide prevention, & future studies utilizing a psychological autopsy protocol.