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Undercounting of suicides: Where suicide data lie hidden
- Source :
- Global Public Health. 15:1894-1901
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Informa UK Limited, 2020.
-
Abstract
- The suicide rates officially reported by most countries are widely believed to be lower than actual rates, attributable partly to inaccuracy of registration of deaths and misclassification of cause of death. In this review paper, we discuss under-counting of deaths and of suicides, referring to findings from international research. We then describe the three main ICD-10 cause of death categories that possibly harbour 'hidden suicides': ill-defined or unknown causes of death, events of undetermined intent (EUI), and accidental deaths. We used the 2017 Australian mortality statistics to illustrate these three categories. The World Health Organization (WHO) data and international research show (1) that mortality data provided to the WHO by a large number of its Member States are of questionable quality and not timely; and (2) substantial variations among countries in rates of suicide, ill-defined or unknown deaths, EUIs, and accidental deaths (notably, poisoning). Accurate reporting of suicides is needed to advance research on suicide prevention and develop more effective suicide prevention programmes. Nations should endeavor to obtain, publish and analyse data regarding annual rates of deaths coded as of ill-defined/unknown cause, EUI, and accidental poisoning and other relevant types of accident.
- Subjects :
- International research
030505 public health
business.industry
Australia
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
World Health Organization
Suicide prevention
World health
Suicide
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Undetermined intent
International Classification of Diseases
Mortality data
Cause of Death
Environmental health
Humans
Medicine
030212 general & internal medicine
Accidental poisoning
0305 other medical science
business
Accidental Deaths
Cause of death
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17441706 and 17441692
- Volume :
- 15
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Global Public Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....9145a0291dc1fd0bc28005a27b66342f