The impact of suicide on morbidity and mortality in the population of Itabira

Résumé 0

"The suicide rates in Itabira, a city with100,000 inhabitants, are higher than those of theBrazilian population. To understand the phenomenonwe investigated morbidity and mortalitythrough a descriptive epidemiological study, withemphasis to external causes and specific subgroups.Suicide was studied according to the characteristicsof victims and events. The period studied was1990-2001.Mortality data were collected from theMortality Information System and morbidity datafor the year 2000 from the Hospital Admission AuthorizationSystem. An active data search on suicideover the period 1996-2001 based on sex, ageand occupation of the victim, month of occurrenceand method used in completed and attempted suicideswas conducted at the local notary’s office andat the state police headquarters. Based on these datawe calculated proportions, rates and mean values.The populations used for calculating the rateswere extracted from the DATASUS base. Resultsindicated an increasing tendency to suicide amongmen, coinciding with the economical crisis causedby the reorganization of the iron productionprocess in this mono-industrial city. Suicide attemptswere more frequent among housewives,housekeepers and students. The mostly used methodswere hanging and firearms. Relevant meansused in suicide attempts were nonmedicinal substances,drugs and medicaments."