National suicide prevention programme and railway suicide

J. Beskow, J. Thorson and M. Öström

Social Science & Medicine, 1994, vol. 38, issue 3, 447-451

Abstract: Suicidal behaviour is a public health problem closely related to other problems such as mental illness, abuse, violence and accidents. This approach is illustrated by the prevention of railway suicides. A theoretical framework is sketched, which allows for the use of principles from injury prevention in the prevention of suicide. ICD-9 encoded death certificates from 1974, 1980, 1986 and 1987 which concerned suicides and undetermined deaths on roads and railways were analysed (N = 294). Additional data were collected from autopsy, police and hospital protocols and from interviews with engine-drivers. Railroad victims dominated the sample (78% of cases). The mean age was 42 yr. Alcohol was detected in 27% of cases, drugs in 36% and severe illness (mostly psychiatric) in 57%. The relationship between types of collision and nature of injury is discussed. Environmental changes, such as changing the locomotive front design, are suggested as strategies for reducing accidents and suicides on railways.

Keywords: suicide; accident; railway; suicide; prevention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(94)90446-4
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:socmed:v:38:y:1994:i:3:p:447-451

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().