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Aim: Suicide is a common cause of death in many Western countries and it has been predicted to become even more common worldwide. The authors analysed socioeconomic differences and trends in Finnish suicide mortality, and assessed the relevance to public health by calculating socioeconomic differences in years of life expectancy lost attributable to suicide., Data and Methods: Census records were used, linked with the death records of men and women aged 25 years and over in 1971-2000 in Finland., Results: Suicide among male and female manual workers was 2.3 and 1.3 times higher respectively than among upper non-manual workers. The differences were largest among those in their thirties. Because of the decline in suicide among upper non-manual workers and a slower decrease or even an increase among other socioeconomic groups, the relative mortality differences increased somewhat during 1970-90, then decreased in the 1990s but remained higher than in the 1970s. In 1991-2000 the suicide-related life expectancy gap between the upper non-manual and manual male workers was 0.6 years, and this difference contributed 10% to the total difference in years of life expectancy lost between these socioeconomic groups., Conclusion: Large and persistent socioeconomic differences were found in suicide mortality and suicide was an important component of the socioeconomic difference in total mortality. Reducing these differences could significantly improve equity in health and reduce the burden of excess mortality.

Background: Several studies have shown that individuals with a history of suicide attempt form a high-risk mortality group. Completed suicide is the main cause of death among them, but excess mortality for other causes of death is much less studied. Furthermore, little is known whether living with others modifies the excess risk of mortality among suicide attempters. Methods: We evaluated an 11% sample from the population registration data of Finns aged 15 years and older in the period 1988-2007 with an 80% oversample of death records and a linkage with information on causes of hospitalisation. We estimate standardised mortality rates and Poisson regression models separately for the general population and those treated in hospital for suicide attempt. Results: Compared with the general population, all-cause mortality risk was ~10-fold among women and well over 10-fold among men during the first 3 months following suicide attempt. The risk for suicide was even greater, but in addition to external causes of death, mortality from smoking- and alcohol-related diseases was elevated. Instead, the proportion of alcohol-associated suicides was smaller among the suicide attempters. Among suicide attempters, the association between living arrangements and mortality was much weaker than in the general population. Conclusion: Premature mortality is extremely high after suicide attempt, especially in the first year. Our results do not support the idea that the resources provided by living with others ameliorate the effects of suicide attempt on subsequent mortality. Suicide prevention should focus on designing adequate aftercare following the attempt, especially for those with alcohol problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]