Suicide, unemployment, and economic recession in Spain

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of the present work is to determine the association between unemployment and suicide, and to investigate whether this association is affected by changes in the economic cycle or other variables such as age and sex.

Methods: A time-trend analysis was conducted to study changes in the number of suicides between 1999 and 2013 in Spain. Pearson's correlation coefficients and regression models were used to find the association between unemployment and suicide.

Results: A significant positive association was found between unemployment and suicide in the pre-crisis period in men. In that period (1999-2007), each 1% annual increase in unemployment was associated with a 6.90% increase in the annual variation of suicide in the total population, and with a 9.04% increase in the annual variation of suicide in working age men.

Conclusions: The correlation between unemployment and suicide is significant in periods of economic stability, but has weakened during the recent financial crisis. Unemployment and suicide have a complex relationship modulated by age, sex and economic cycle.

Keywords: Desempleo; Economic Recession; Epidemiology; Epidemiología; España; Recesión económica; Spain; Suicide; Suicidio; Unemployment.