Firearm suicides fell worldwide since 1990, but rose in 31 countries

From 1990 to 2019, deaths from suicide by firearm declined all through the world, however some nations noticed an growing pattern. Irena Ilic of the College of Belgrade, Serbia, and colleagues current these findings within the open-access journal PLOS ONE on Could 25, 2022.

Firearm suicides characterize a big public well being concern in lots of nations. Monitoring and understanding firearm suicide statistics can assist inform efforts to scale back deaths. Nonetheless, few research have examined dying charges from suicide by firearm at a world scale.

To enhance understanding of this challenge, Ilic and colleagues analyzed firearm suicide knowledge for women and men from 204 nations and territories, spanning the interval from 1990 to 2019. Utilizing this knowledge, they calculated age-standardized mortality charges from suicide by firearm; this measurement accounts for variations in firearm suicide mortality charges noticed between completely different age teams and the completely different proportions of individuals of various ages making up completely different nations’ populations.

By 2019, the evaluation discovered that 52,694 firearm suicide deaths occurred worldwide, giving an age-standardized mortality fee of 0.65 deaths per 100,000 individuals. Worldwide, charges had been six instances increased for males than for ladies on this 12 months (45,110 deaths in males and seven,584 in ladies). The very best firearm suicide charges, for each women and men, had been in Greenland and the U.S., adopted by developed nations together with France, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, and Norway. Charges had been lowest in China, Japan, and Singapore.

Worldwide, firearm suicides decreased between 1990 and 2019, with the largest decreases seen in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Switzerland. Nonetheless, will increase had been seen in 31 nations, notably in growing nations, together with Jamaica, Venezuela, and Egypt. In some nations, comparable to Afghanistan, charges elevated for ladies however not for males.

The authors word that the information used for this examine might undergo from incompleteness for some nations, in addition to a scarcity of standardization of suicide knowledge between nations. Nonetheless, the findings may assist inform public well being efforts to scale back firearm suicides around the globe.

The authors add that “there are massive worldwide variations within the mortality patterns of suicide by firearm. Regardless of the reducing developments in mortality of suicide by firearm in a lot of the areas, noticed in each sexes and in all age teams, in 31 nations growing developments in mortality of suicide by firearm had been reported.”