The influence of marital status on epidemiological characteristics of suicides in the southeastern part of Serbia

Background: The support of close persons is a protective factor in the suicide epidemiology. The aim of this paper is to determine if there aredifferences between epidemiological characteristics of the suicides committed by married people in relation to singles.Methods: In order to determine epidemiological characteristics of suicide among married and single people in the southeastern Serbia 628suicides committed from 1995 to 2002 among persons 20 years of age and over were analysed. To compare suicide rates between married andsingle persons Ö_ test was performed.Results: From 628 registered suicides, 188 were performed by women, and 440 by men. The average annual suicide rate among males was24.1 per 100,000 and among females it was 9.9. The highest rates were among widowed (139.0) and divorced men (63.2). The highest risk factorfor suicide was to be widowed (men: RR=8.35; women: RR=2.75). The suicide trend among women, both married and single has been declin-ing, whilst among males it has been on significant increase. Seasonality of suicides, weekly and daily distribution had a small influence on theepidemiological characteristics of suicides. Married women committed more suicides by poisoning than single women (p=0.02). In both groups,the most frequent way is hanging.Conclusion: Though marital status plays important role in an increasing rates of suicide, time and the way of its happening, this role is notdecisive. Single people are very vulnerable and the time and way of suicide show that their reasons are more serious than among married ones

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