Suicide and marital status in the United States, 1991-1996: Is widowhood a risk factor?

J.B. Luoma and J.L. Pearson

American Journal of Public Health, 2002, vol. 92, issue 9, 1518-1522

Abstract: Objectives. This study examined whether marital status is associated with suicide rates among various age, sex, and racial groups, in particular with widowhood among young adults of both sexes. Methods. US national suicide mortality data were compiled for the years 1991-1996, and suicide rates were broken down by race, 5-year age groups, sex, and marital status. Results. Data on suicide rates indicated an approximately 17-fold increase among young widowed White men (aged 20-34 years), a 9-fold increase among young widowed African American men, and lesser increases among young widowed White women compared with their married counterparts. Conclusions. National data suggest that as many as 1 in 400 White and African American widowed men aged 20-35 years will die by suicide in any given year (compared with 1 in 9000 married men in the general population).

Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:2002:92:9:1518-1522_5

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().