THURSDAY, June 14, 2018 (HealthDay News) — From 2000 to 2016 there was a 30 percent increase in the age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States, according to a June data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
Holly Hedegaard, M.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues used data from the National Vital Statistics System to update trends in suicide mortality from 2000 through 2016 and describe differences by sex, age group, and means of suicide.
The researchers found that the age-adjusted suicide rate increased 30 percent from 2000 to 2016, from 10.4 to 13.5 per 100,000 population, with average increases of about 1 and 2 percent per year from 2000 through 2006 and from 2006 through 2016, respectively. Compared with 2000, in 2016 suicide rates were higher for females aged 10 to 74 years and for males aged 15 to 74 years. Suffocation accounted for a higher percentage of suicides among females under age 25 years in 2016, while poisoning accounted for a higher percentage among females aged 45 years and older. Among males aged 15 years and older, firearms were the most common means of suicide in 2016.
“In 2016, suicide became the second leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 34 and the fourth leading cause among those aged 35 to 54,” the authors write.
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