The waterfall pattern of suicide mortality in Inner Mongolia for 2008-2015

Abstract

Aim: This study aims to determine the characteristics and severity of suicide mortality in Inner Mongolia between 2008 and 2015.

Methods: The death data between 2008 and 2015 was collected from the Death Registry System,¹ and the suicide mortality were calculated. Suicide mortality for total of eight years and two periods (2008-2011 and 2012-2015) were tested by the X²-test. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the risk of suicide between these two observation periods by gender and region. The age-specific suicide mortality was displayed through a semi-logarithmic line chart using Pearson's correlation coefficients. Then, the prohibited pesticides and proportion of organophosphorus pesticides were calculated.

Results: The suicide mortality (7.20/10⁵) in 2008-2011 was higher than the suicide mortality (4.84/10⁵) in 2012-2015 (X² = 62.28, P = 0.00). Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to pesticides² and intentional self-harm by hanging³ were the two main ways of suicide, accounting for nearly 80%. The all-cause suicide mortality increased with age (r = 0.837, P = 0.005) in 2008-2011 and (r = 0.863, P = 0.003) in 2012-2015, and suicide mortality was higher in males than in females.

Limitation: The DRS did not provide the pesticides used by people who committed suicide by pesticide poisoning.

Conclusion: Suicide mortality dropped like a waterfall in Inner Mongolia between 2008 and 2015, and the most obvious drop was pesticide suicide.The general drop in suicide mortality, especially the drop in pesticide poisoning suicide mortality, may be attributable to social policies that benefited the residents and the prohibition of selected pesticides. Favorable policies can effectively decrease suicide mortality.

Keywords: Inner Mongolia; Mortality; Suicide.