Economic uncertainty and suicide in the United States

TY - JOUR

T1 - Economic uncertainty and suicide in the United States

AU - Vandoros, Sotiris

AU - Kawachi, Ichiro

N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful to the Editors of the Journal and two anonymous Referees for their very useful comments and suggestions that have helped improve the paper. We would also like to thank Xiangpu Gong for assistance with data extraction and Pedro Santos Raposo for comments on an earlier version of the paper. All outstanding errors are our own. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/6

Y1 - 2021/6

N2 - Previous studies have found an association between recessions and increased rates of suicide. In the present study we widened the focus to examine the association between economic uncertainty and suicides. We used monthly suicide data from the US at the State level from 2000 to 2017 and combined them with the monthly economic uncertainty index. We followed a panel data econometric approach to study the association between economic uncertainty and suicide, controlling for unemployment and other indicators. Economic uncertainty is positively associated with suicide when controlling for unemployment [coeff: 8.026; 95% CI: 3.692–12.360] or for a wider range of economic and demographic characteristics [coeff: 7.478; 95% CI: 3.333–11.623]. An increase in the uncertainty index by one percent is associated with an additional 11–24.4 additional monthly suicides in the US. Economic uncertainty is likely to act as a trigger, which underlines the impulsive nature of some suicides. This highlights the importance of providing access to suicide prevention interventions (e.g. hotlines) during periods of economic uncertainty.

AB - Previous studies have found an association between recessions and increased rates of suicide. In the present study we widened the focus to examine the association between economic uncertainty and suicides. We used monthly suicide data from the US at the State level from 2000 to 2017 and combined them with the monthly economic uncertainty index. We followed a panel data econometric approach to study the association between economic uncertainty and suicide, controlling for unemployment and other indicators. Economic uncertainty is positively associated with suicide when controlling for unemployment [coeff: 8.026; 95% CI: 3.692–12.360] or for a wider range of economic and demographic characteristics [coeff: 7.478; 95% CI: 3.333–11.623]. An increase in the uncertainty index by one percent is associated with an additional 11–24.4 additional monthly suicides in the US. Economic uncertainty is likely to act as a trigger, which underlines the impulsive nature of some suicides. This highlights the importance of providing access to suicide prevention interventions (e.g. hotlines) during periods of economic uncertainty.

KW - Suicide

KW - Economic uncertainty

KW - Economic conditions

KW - Unemployment

KW - United States

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107510538&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10654-021-00770-4

DO - 10.1007/s10654-021-00770-4

M3 - Article

SN - 0393-2990

VL - 36

SP - 641

EP - 647

JO - EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY

JF - EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY

IS - 6

ER -