Epidemiology of Suicidal Behaviour in Shumadia District, Serbia: a Fifteen-year Retrospective Study.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to analyze epidemiological characteristics of suicide, as well as to emphasize possible risk factors.

METHODS: This is a retrospective study, covering the period of fifteen years (1996-2010), which aims at discovering the relevant factors which have an influence on suicidal behaviour. This research uses the data from the documentation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia and Police Department in Kragujevac, hospitalization reports of patients treated at Psychiatric Clinic of the Clinical Centre Kragujevac, as well as the medical records of patients treated at the Health Centre Kragujevac. χ2 test was applied to examine the influence of all selected factors on incidence of suicide and for this purpose SPSS statistical software package was used.

RESULTS: The analysis has shown that during the given period average suicide rate reached 11.8 per population of 100,000. The male to female suicide ratio of 3.6:1 obtained through this study suggests that men (78.4%) are more prone to suicide than women (21.6%). The highest number of suicides has been found within the age group of 65-year-olds (31.2%), while for the youngest age group (15-24 years) the lowest prevalence of 8.8% has been determined. In other words, the youngest subjects are 3.5 times less likely to commit suicide than the participants of the oldest age group. During the given period suicide was most often committed by married males and females with primary school education than by employed and retired people. The research has also revealed that most suicides came from urban areas (52.0%) and that the most common method of suicide is hanging (60.8%), followed by suicide by firearms, jumping from height, poisoning, and drowning.

CONCLUSION: In order to prevent suicide, it is essential to collect and analyze all information concerning suicide victims.