Background: Suicide is a complex and multifactorial phenomenon. The number of work-related suicides is difficult to assess in France. There are nevertheless some data available to document this problem. The aim of this study is to describe suicide attempts (SA) and suicide mortality according to occupation in France.
Methods: The description of SA relies on the "Baromètre Santé 2005", a cross-sectional representative survey conducted by the Inpes in France. The study population includes 6264 men and 7389 women in employment at the time of the survey. The prevalence of all life SA is described according to occupational category (one and two digits). Data on suicide mortality before the age of 65 comes from the Cosmop project, conducted by the Department of Occupational Health/InVS, and based on data from the "Echantillon démographique permanent"/Insee linked to medical causes of death from the French national death registry (CepiDc/Inserm). People included was born in France, employed at one of censuses (1968, 1975, 1982 and 1990, 187,938 men, 150,683 women). Relative risks for suicide mortality were estimated for the last known occupational category and economic sector.
Results: The prevalence of life course SA was higher among women than among men (6.6% vs 3.1%); an opposite situation was observed for mortality. Regarding salaried people, categories of manual workers and clerks are the most affected by SA and mortality from suicide whereas executives are the least concerned. Farmers were little affected by SA (0.4% men, 4.1% women) but experienced the highest rate of mortality by suicide (RR=3.1 men, RR=2.2 women). Among women, compared to non market sectors, the agricultural and equipment goods sectors exhibited an excessive risk of mortality from suicide.
Conclusion: This study points out SA and mortality from suicide inequalities by occupational categories and to a lesser extent by economic sector. These results provide a first assessment on suicide according to occupation in France.