Register for email alerts and news feeds:
This journal | BMJ Group
rss
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2000;54:254-261; doi:10.1136/jech.54.4.254
Copyright © 2000 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
J Epidemiol Community Health 2000;54:254-261 ( April )

Research report

Marital status and suicide in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study Augustine J Kposowa

University of California, Riverside, USA

Correspondence to: Augustine J Kposowa, Department of Sociology, 1214 Watkins Hall, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.

Accepted for publication 12 August 1999

OBJECTIVES---The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of marital status on the risk of suicide, using a large nationally representative sample. A related objective was to investigate the association between marital status and suicide by sex.
METHODS---Cox proportional hazards regression models were applied to data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, based on the 1979-1989 follow up. In estimating the effect of marital status, adjustments were made for age, sex, race, education, family income, and region of residence.
RESULTS---For the entire sample, higher risks of suicide were found in divorced than in married persons. Divorced and separated persons were over twice as likely to commit suicide as married persons (RR=2.08, 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) 1.58, 2.72). Being single or widowed had no significant effect on suicide risk. When data were stratified by sex, it was observed that the risk of suicide among divorced men was over twice that of married men (RR=2.38, CI 1.77, 3.20). Among women, however, there were no statistically significant differentials in the risk of suicide by marital status categories.
CONCLUSIONS---Marital status, especially divorce, has strong net effect on mortality from suicide, but only among men. The study showed that in epidemiological research on suicide, more accurate results would be obtained if samples are stratified on the basis of key demographic or social characteristics. The study further observed that failure to control for relevant socioeconomic variables or combining men and women in the same models could produce misleading results.


Keywords: suicide; marital status; socioeconomic status; effect modification


© 2000 by Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Sbarra, D. A., Law, R. W., Lee, L. A., Mason, A. E. (2009). Marital Dissolution and Blood Pressure Reactivity: Evidence for the Specificity of Emotional Intrusion-Hyperarousal and Task-Rated Emotional Difficulty. Psychosom. Med. 71: 532-540 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Maki, N. E., Martikainen, P. T. (2007). Socioeconomic differences in suicide mortality by sex in Finland in 1971--2000: A register-based study of trends, levels, and life expectancy differences. Scand J Public Health 35: 387-395 [Abstract]  
  • Agerbo, E., Qin, P., Mortensen, P. B. (2006). Psychiatric illness, socioeconomic status, and marital status in people committing suicide: a matched case-sibling-control study.. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 60: 776-781 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Kim, M.-D., Hong, S.-C., Lee, S.-Y., Kwak, Y.-S., Lee, C.-I., Hwang, S.-W., Shin, T.-K., Lee, S.-M., Shin, J.-N. (2006). Suicide Risk in Relation to Social Class: A National Register-Based Study of Adult Suicides in Korea, 1999-2001. Int J Soc Psychiatry 52: 138-151 [Abstract]  
  • LORANT, V., KUNST, A. E., HUISMAN, M., COSTA, G., MACKENBACH, J., EU Working Group on Socio-Economic Inequalities in, (2005). Socio-economic inequalities in suicide: a European comparative study. Br. J. Psychiatry 187: 49-54 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Agerbo, E. (2005). Midlife suicide risk, partner's psychiatric illness, spouse and child bereavement by suicide or other modes of death: a gender specific study. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 59: 407-412 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Gunnell, D., Harbord, R., Singleton, N., Jenkins, R., Lewis, G. (2004). Factors influencing the development and amelioration of suicidal thoughts in the general population: Cohort study. Br. J. Psychiatry 185: 385-393 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Kposowa, A J (2003). Divorce and suicide risk. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 57: 993-993 [Full Text]  
  • Qin, P., Agerbo, E., Mortensen, P. B. (2003). Suicide Risk in Relation to Socioeconomic, Demographic, Psychiatric, and Familial Factors: A National Register-Based Study of All Suicides in Denmark, 1981-1997. Am. J. Psychiatry 160: 765-772 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Runyan, C W, Moracco, K E, Dulli, L, Butts, J (2003). Suicide among North Carolina women, 1989-93: information from two data sources. Inj. Prev. 9: 67-72 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Luoma, J. B., Pearson, J. L. (2002). Suicide and Marital Status in the United States, 1991-1996: Is Widowhood a Risk Factor?. Am. J. Public Health 92: 1518-1522 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Kunce, M., Anderson, A. L. (2002). The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on State Suicide Rates: A Methodological Note. Urban Stud 39: 155-162 [Abstract]  
  • Myslobodsky, M., Lalonde, F. M., Hicks, L. (2001). Are Patients with Parkinson's Disease Suicidal?. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 14: 120-124 [Abstract]  
  • CHEUNG, Y B, YIP;, P. S F, KPOSOWA, A. J (2000). Marital status and suicide: some common methodological problems. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 54: 878-878 [Full Text]  
  • Rice, D. P (2000). Cost of illness studies: what is good about them?. Inj. Prev. 6: 177-179 [Full Text]  

eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Considerations
Andrea P. Laack
J Epidemiol Community Health Online, 4 Jan 2005 [Full text]

This Article

Services
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.

BMJ Careers - Latest infectious diseases and epidemilogy jobs

Infectious diseases and epidemilogy jobs