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Abstract
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Rates of suicide among American Indian or Alaska Native persons increased substantially from 2015 to 2020, compared with only a small increase among the general US population, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows.
Suicide disproportionately affects American Indian or Alaska Native individuals compared with the general US population, with rates that "consistently surpass those among all other racial and ethnic groups," the CDC researchers note. However, in recent years, that gap has widened even more, their new findings show.
The rate of suicide among non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native persons increased nearly 20% from 2015 to 2020, from 20.0 per 100 000 to 23.9 per 100 000. In contrast, the rate increased by less than 1% among the overall US population.
Suicide rates vary by race and ethnicity, age, and other factors, such as geographic region, according to the CDC. Among racial and ethnic groups in the US, those with the highest suicide rates were non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native and non-Hispanic White populations. Other groups in the US with disproportionately high rates of suicide include veterans, people who reside in rural areas, and people working in certain industries and occupations, such as mining and construction.
Because suicide is preventable, it is important to understand the types of factors that might contribute to suicide risk among different groups, to allow for interventions specifically tailored to those groups. "Suicide is a complex problem with multiple contributing circumstances that affect different communities differently," said the researchers, noting that previous studies have analyzed suicide characteristics and circumstances in only a limited number of states.
In the new analysis, the CDC researchers used National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) data from 49 states (excluding Florida), Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. This state-based surveillance system collects information from death certificates, coroner or medical examiner reports, and law enforcement reports on the characteristics and circumstances of suicide and other violent deaths. The researchers excluded NVDRS data on decedents younger than 10 years because of the difficulty in determining suicide intent in young children.
From 2015 to 2020, NVDRS reported a total of 3397 suicides among American Indian or Alaska Native persons and 179 850 suicides among non-American Indian or Alaska Native persons, finding a number of differences between the 2 groups, including a higher proportion of suicides occurring in younger individuals. Nearly 75% of suicides among American Indian or Alaska Native populations were in those aged 44 years or younger, compared with less than half (about 47%) of suicides in other populations. The highest percentage of suicides...
Language: en |