Evaluation of suicide rates in rural India using verbal autopsies, 1994-9

Suicide rates have increased in many developing countries.1 But the reported rates are misleading because population counts are unreliable, and identifying suicides is problematic because of inefficient civil registration systems, non-reporting of deaths, variable standards in certifying death, and suicide's legal and social consequences. Suicide rates were between 8.1 and 58.3/100 000 population for different parts of India.2 Police records, which under-report, were used to calculate these rates. We used verbal autopsies in the 85 villages of the Kaniyambadi region of southern India (area 127 km2; population 108 873 in 1999) to calculate mean age and sex specific suicide rates for the period 1994-9. A community health worker (a resident of the village), health aide, community nurse, and doctor reached a consensus on the cause of death. …