Citation

Harris KM, Thandrayen J, Samphoas C, Se P, Lewchalermwongse B, Ratanashevorn R, Perry ML, Britts C. Asia Pac. J. Public Health 2016; 28(3): 262-270.

Affiliation

University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1010539516634186

PMID

26969636

Abstract

This study tested a low-cost method for estimating suicide rates in developing nations that lack adequate statistics. Data comprised reported suicides from Cambodia's 2 largest newspapers. Capture-recapture modeling estimated a suicide rate of 3.8/100 000 (95% CI = 2.5-6.7) for 2012. That compares to World Health Organization estimates of 1.3 to 9.4/100 000 and a Cambodian government estimate of 3.5/100 000. Suicide rates of males were twice that of females, and rates of those <40 years were twice that of those ≥40 years. Capture-recapture modeling with newspaper reports proved a reasonable method for estimating suicide rates for countries with inadequate official data. These methods are low-cost and can be applied to regions with at least 2 newspapers with overlapping reports. Means to further improve this approach are discussed. These methods are applicable to both recent and historical data, which can benefit epidemiological work, and may also be applicable to homicides and other statistics.

© 2016 APJPH.

Language: en