Mortality Rate and Years of Life Lost From Unintentional Injury and Suicide in South India

The authors calculated mortality rates of years of life lost because of unintentional injuries & suicides using community based information obtained prospectively from 1998-2004 in a rural & peri-urban population of 108,000 in south India. The rate of suicide was 82.2 per 100,000 population. Unintentional injuries & suicides resulted in 26.9% of total life years lost over the study period while 18.9% of all deaths in the population were attributable to these causes. The high burden is particularly noticeable in the 15-29 age group. The burden of injuries reported in this study is significantly higher than figures in available reports for India & is likely due to under-reporting in routine mortality statistics, particularly of suicides. (7 refs.)