Year: 2001 Source: Epidemiology, v.12, no.2, (March 2001), p.168-172 SIEC No: 20010648

The association between low serum total cholesterol & risk of death from suicide was examined using participants in the 1970-1972 Nutrition Canada Survey. The mortality experience of participants older than 11 years of age at baseline through 1993 by way of record linkage to the Canadian National Mortality Database was examined. The relation between low serum total cholesterol & suicide mortality was assessed using a stratified analysis. There were 27 suicide deaths. Adjusting for age & gender, it was found that those in the lowest quartile of serum total cholesterol concentration had more than 6 times the risk of committing suicide as did subjects in the highest quartile. The effect persisted after the exclusion from the analysis of the first 5 years of follow-up & after the removal of those who were unemployed or who had been treated for depression. Data indicated low serum total cholesterol level is associated with an increased risk of suicide. (28 refs.)