Use of age-Adjusted Rates of Suicide in Time Series Studies in Israel

Durkheim’s modified theory of suicide was examined to explore how consistent it was in predicting Israeli rates of suicide from 1965-1997 when using age-adjusted rates rather than crude ones. In this time-series study, male & female rates of suicide were found to increase & decrease, respectively. Conforming to Durkheim’s modified theory, the male rate of suicide was lower in years when rates of marriage & birth are higher, while rates of suicide are higher in years when rates of divorce are higher, the opposite to that of Israrli women. Results were not consistent with rates based on crude suicide data. Thus, using age-adjusted rates of suicide had an influence on the prediction of the Israeli rate of suicide during this period. (17 refs.)