Suicide and hospitalised self-harm in Australia
Suicide and hospitalised self-harm in Australia
Malinda Steenkamp, James Harrison
November 2000
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Canberra
AIHW cat. no. INJCAT 30
This is a statistical report on suicide and hospitalised self harm in Australia.
It provides the latest data available including data on age and sex distribution and methods used,
and presents trends for suicide deaths.
The report also includes information on suicide amongst Indigenous Australians
and describes the shortcomings of the data and the implications for
interpreting the data.
It will be relevant to those interested in data on suicide or those working in
the field, including community practitioners, health planners and administrators,
academic researchers and the public.
The report is available here as a PDF document (~ 1036 Kb).
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ERRATUM
The following should be substituted on page 4 of the report.
Suicide
and hospitalised self-harm in Australia: correction to page 4
Table 2.1 : Suicide by marital status and sex; Australia 1998
Marital
status |
Males |
Per
cent |
Crude rates(a) |
Females |
Per
cent |
Crude
rates(a)
|
Never
married |
1007 |
47% |
39.3 |
193 |
36% |
9.2 |
Married |
734 |
34% |
17.8 |
191 |
36% |
4.6 |
Divorced |
237 |
11% |
51.5 |
83 |
16% |
14.5 |
Widowed |
60 |
3% |
34.0 |
48 |
9% |
6.4
|
De
facto or tribally married (b)
|
60 |
3% |
- |
9 |
2%
|
-
|
Unknown/not
stated
|
52
|
2%
|
-
|
9
|
2%
|
- |
Total
|
2,150
|
100%
|
|
533
|
100%
|
|
Cells shaded in dark grey indicate the most common category, or highest rate. Those
shaded in light grey indicate the second most common.
(a) Crude rates per 100,000 population for suicide by marital status were
calculated, excluding the seven suicide cases at ages less than 15 years and
the 69 cases categorised as `Defacto' or 'Tribally married'. Population
estimates, by marital status, of the estimated resident population of males and
females in Australia aged 15 years and older as at 30 June 1998 were obtained
from ABS 3310.0, 1999 edition.
(b) The two categories `De facto' and `Tribally married' were combined. The
category `de facto' is only used in NSW and NT. In 1998 there were 59 male and
9 female suicide cases which were classified as `de facto'. There was one male
who was categorised as tribally married.
In 1998, divorced males had the highest suicide rate, followed by males who
were never married (Table 2.1). Males who were married had the lowest crude
suicide rate. For females, the rates were much lower than the rates for males
and the highest suicide rate was in the divorced group, followed by those who
were never married, and those who were widowed. Married women had the lowest
suicide rate.
|