© 2002 Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
EDITORIAL
Politics
Mortality and political climate: how suicide rates have risen during periods of Conservative government, 1901–2000
1 Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK
2 School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr M Shaw;
mary.shaw@bristol.ac.uk
Do conservative governments make people want to die?
Keywords: politics; suicide
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The paper by Page and colleagues adds to a growing literature that considers the effect of the political environment (whether from the point of view of which political regime holds power or considering in more detail the proportion of population voting for particular parties) and mortality.1,2 In this case the specific cause of death in question is suicide, and the paper thus adds to a long tradition of research in sociology and epidemiology on factors beyond the individual that influence societal rates of suicide.3–5
The findings by Page et al suggest a dose-response or perhaps "true" effect such that during the 20th century the presence of Conservative governments at both State and Federal level in Australia were associated with higher suicide rates. Crucially, the effect is strongest when both levels of government are Conservative, with adjusted relative risks of suicide of 1.17 for men and 1.40 for women compared
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