Suicide at Work: Misclassification and Prevention Implications

A matched-case design was used to determine the extent of misclassification of deaths by suicide with regard to work-relatedness & the implication for intervention. Cases were identified from CaliforniaÕs master mortality file. Two controls matched on the same external cause of death codes, age, date of death, & county of occurrence were randomly selected. Over 11% of cases & 23% of controls were misclassified. The findings point to misappropriation of the work-relatedness of suicide & hence, an inaccurate understanding of underlying risk factors & their intervention potential. (LC) (28 refs)