Alcohol and suicide in 14 European countries

Abstract

Aims. To test the hypothesis that a positive population-level relationship between alcohol and suicide is more likely to be found in dry drinking cultures (as indicated by consumption level) than in wet drinking cultures. Design. Gender-and age-speci c suicide rates in 14 western European countries were analysed in relation to per capita alcohol consumption employing the Box-Jenkins technique for time series analysis. The country-speci c estimates were pooled into low-, medium-and high-consumption countries. Measurements. Suicide mortality data for 5-year age groups were converted into gender-and age-speci c mortality rates. Alcohol sales expressed as litres of 100% alcohol per year and inhabitants 15 years and older were used as a measure of alcohol consumption. Findings. A positive and signi cant relationship between per capita consumption and gender-and age-speci c suicide rates was revealed most often in northern Europe and found least often in southern Europe. A stronger absolute alcohol effect for men was found only in northern Europe, whereas the relative alcohol effect was somewhat stronger for women in both northern and central Europe. Also, the suicide rate in younger age groups was more often signi cantly related to per capita consumption than suicide among the elder in northern and central Europe but not in southern Europe. Conclusions. The population-level association between alcohol and suicide is conditioned by cultural factors. In general, the suicide rate tends to be more responsive to changes in alcohol consumption in drinking cultures characterized by a low post-war per capita consumption compared to drinking cultures with higher consumption levels. The ndings give support to the hypothesis derived from previous theoretical and empirical work, suggesting that suicide and alcohol is more closely connected in dry cultures than in wet cultures.

Social-Environmental Factors and Suicide Mortality: A Narrative Review of over 200 Articles

“…Alcohol has been linked to increased country-level suicide rates in Europe, Canada (Hintikka et al, 1999;Inelmen, Gazerro, Inelmen, Sergi, & Manzato, 2010;Landberg, 2008;Mann, Zalcman, Smart, Rush, & Suurvali, 2006;Ramstedt, 2001) and in Japan (Nakaya et al, 2007). Alcohol is also thought to be associated with higher rates of suicide in some Indigenous groups and in the Pacific, although empirical data on this relationship is scarce (De Leo, Milner, & Sveticic, 2012;Laliberté & Tousignant, 2009;Rubinstein, 1992).…”

“…The article particularly focused on studies assessing economic strain (changes in national income, income inequality, unemployment and modernisation) and social bonds in society (such as relationship status, fertility/birth rates, gender role shifts, religion and migration). This narrative review also covered research into several other social-environmental factors shown to have an influence on suicide, including alcohol use in society (Ramstedt, 2001) and media reports of suicide (Pirkis & Blood, 2001a. Differences in access to lethal means used in suicide were also considered, as these have been shown to vary across social contexts (Ajdacic-Gross et al, 2008).…”

The Effects of Alcohol on Suicide Rate in Russia

“…We used this model specification to estimate the relationship between the time series alcoholism and suicide mortality rates in this paper. In line with previous aggregate [16,17] we estimated semi-logarithmic models with logged output. The following model was estimated:…”

Métodos de investigación sobre daños en la población relacionados con el alcohol

“…Han puesto de manifiesto que el efecto del alcohol sobre estos desenlaces depende de los patrones y la cultura de consumo de cada país, siendo la asociación más fuerte donde los atracones predominan sobre el consumo regular, como en el norte y centro de Europa [122][123][124][125] . Como se indicó, a partir de estos estudios se puede obtener el porcentaje de cambio en la frecuencia del problema por litro de alcohol consumido o combinar este porcentaje con el nivel total de consumo para encontrar la FAP-alcohol específica del país para ese problema 20 .…”