TY - JOUR PY - 2020// TI - Association of selected area-level indicators with suicide mortality in Slovenian municipalities JO - Crisis A1 - Roskar, Saska A1 - Sedlar, Nataša A1 - Furman, Lucija A1 - Roškar, Maja A1 - Podlešek, Anja SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - BACKGROUND: With an average suicide rate of 20 per 100,000 in the last decade, Slovenia is above the EU average. There are considerable regional differences in suicide mortality within the country.

AIM: We aimed to investigate the relationship between selected indicators at area level and the suicide rate in Slovenian municipalities.

METHOD: Sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and (mental) health data in the years 2012-2016 were analyzed for 212 municipalities. Robust correlation and regression analyses were performed to determine the relationship between different variables and the suicide rate.

RESULTS: The suicide rate was positively associated with the percentage of male inhabitants, the high social cohesion in the neighborhood, and the number of sick leave days per capita. It was negatively related to the net income per capita, the marriage rate, the divorce rate, and the availability of professional mental healthcare services. Limitations: The small suicide frequencies within municipalities constitute a limitation of the study.

CONCLUSION: Factors at local, municipal level can be linked to the risk of suicide. In Slovenia, neighborhood cohesion is one of the factors that should be considered when designing suicide prevention measures in a community.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0227-5910 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000742 ID - ref1 ER -