The following is a summary of “Self-harm hospitalizations and neighbourhood level material and social deprivation in Canada: an ecological study,” published in the November 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Liu et al.
Socio-economic status impacts self-harm at both individual and area levels. In Canada, evidence linking area-level socio-economic markers to self-harm is limited.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess the impact of small area-level material and social deprivation on self-harm hospitalization rates.
They analyzed administrative data on hospitalizations from 2 Canadian databases (Discharge Abstract Database and Ontario Mental Health Reporting System) for April 1, 2015. They analyzed administrative data on hospitalizations from two Canadian databases (Discharge Abstract Database and Ontario Mental Health Reporting System) from April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2022. They estimated self-harm hospitalization rates and repeated admission percentages across quintiles of material and social deprivation, calculating rate ratios to assess disparities. Rates were stratified by sex and age group, and repeated admissions were stratified by sex.
The results showed 109,398 self-harm hospitalizations. People in more deprived areas had higher hospitalization rates than those in less deprived areas. Rate ratios for the most deprived areas were 1.48 (95% CI: 1.38–1.58) for material deprivation and 1.71 (95% CI: 1.60–1.82) for social deprivation. The largest disparity was in those aged 25–44 years for material deprivation and 45–64 years for social deprivation. Repeated self-harm hospitalizations were higher in more deprived areas for social deprivation, and among males for material deprivation.
They found that material and social deprivation were linked to higher self-harm hospitalizations and repeated admissions, emphasizing the need for neighborhood-level interventions.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-024-06316-8