Despite efforts to reduce suicides worldwide, America is the only region where mortality from the cause has increased since 2000, a PAHO study showed today.
According to the new study, developed by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and published this Thursday in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, 79 percent of suicides in this area occur in men, although women have also increased. .
Because of this, 97,000 deaths were reported in the region in 2019.
The analysis underscores the importance of considering the gender-specific social determinants of suicide when developing risk reduction interventions and prevention strategies.
The text found that while homicide and the use of alcohol and other substances are associated with an increase in suicide mortality among men, educational inequality was the main factor among women, while unemployment was associated with an increase in mortality from this cause for both sexes.
According to Dr. Renato Oliveira e Souza, head of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use at PAHO and one of the authors of the article, “to prevent suicide we must go beyond restricting access to the methods to commit it and the social emotional skills and improving access to mental health care.
Together, he clarified, contextual factors that affect men and women differently need to be addressed, requiring a whole-of-society approach, he noted.
In the article Contextual Factors Associated with Country-Level Suicide Mortality in the Americas, 2000-2019, the experts emphasized that increasing employment opportunities and improving access to and capacity of health services, including those related to substance use, could reduce death rates Cause.
Improving social relationships in rural and sparsely populated areas is also a recommended suicide prevention strategy.