Observational studyInternational journal of epidemiology2015
Economic downturns and suicide mortality in the USA, 1980-2010: observational study.
Observational study in International journal of epidemiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Socioeconomic disparities in the association between macroeconomic changes and suicide: a population-level time series study in Australia.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- Comparison of suicide rates in the USA and Australia between 1921 and 2020: major shifts in youth and elderly suicide rates over a century.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- LIVES VERSUS LIVELIHOODS: THE IMPACT OF THE GREAT RECESSION ON MORTALITY AND WELFARE.The quarterly journal of economics · 2025Article
- "Deaths of despair" over the business cycle: New estimates from a shift-share instrumental variables approach.Economics and human biology · 2024Article
- Uncertainty, Anxiety and the Post-Pandemic Economic Environment.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2023Article
- Prepare developed democracies for long-run economic slowdowns.Nature human behaviour · 2021Review
- Educational inequalities in suicide in the highly volatile economy of Argentina.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2021Article
- Short-term exposures to atmospheric evergreen, deciduous, grass, and ragweed aeroallergens and the risk of suicide in Ohio, 2007-2015: Exploring disparities by age, gender, and education level.Environmental research · 2021Article
- The Impact of Economic Recessions on Depression, Anxiety, and Trauma-Related Disorders and Illness Outcomes-A Scoping Review.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Economic uncertainty and suicide in the United States.European journal of epidemiology · 2021Article
- Social Determinants of Health and Implementation Research: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.Ethnicity & disease · 2021Article
- National Institutes of Health social and behavioral research in response to the SARS-CoV2 Pandemic.Translational behavioral medicine · 2020Article
- Design and Methods of the Korean National Investigations of 70,000 Suicide Victims Through Police Records (The KNIGHTS Study).Psychiatry investigation · 2019Article
- Socioeconomic inequalities in suicide mortality in Barcelona during the economic crisis (2006-2016): a time trend study.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Worldwide trends in suicide mortality from 1990 to 2015 with a focus on the global recession time frame.International journal of public health · 2019Article
- Unemployment and suicide in Italy: evidence of a long-run association mitigated by public unemployment spending.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2019Article
- Increasing income-based inequality in suicide mortality among working-age women and men, Sweden, 1990-2007: is there a point of trend change?Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2018Article
- An Ecological Study on the Spatially Varying Relationship between County-Level Suicide Rates and Altitude in the United States.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
- Socioeconomic inequalities in suicide mortality before and after the economic recession in Spain.BMC public health · 2017Article
- The impact of the 2008 recession on the health of older workers: data from 13 European countries.European journal of public health · 2017Article
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Funding
Abstract
backgroundSeveral studies have suggested strong associations between economic downturns and suicide mortality, but are at risk of bias due to unmeasured confounding. The rationale for our study was to provide more robust evidence by using a quasi-experimental design.
methodsWe analysed 955,561 suicides occurring in the USA from 1980 to 2010 and used a broad index of economic activity in each US state to measure economic conditions. We used a quasi-experimental, fixed-effects design and we also assessed whether the effects were heterogeneous by demographic group and during periods of official recession.
resultsAfter accounting for secular trends, seasonality and unmeasured fixed characteristics of states, we found that an economic downturn similar in magnitude to the 2007 Great Recession increased suicide mortality by 0.14 deaths per 100,000 population [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.00, 0.28] or around 350 deaths. Effects were stronger for men (0.28, 95% CI 0.07, 0.49) than women and for those with less than 12 years of education (1.22 95% CI 0.83, 1.60) compared with more than 12 years of education. The overall effect did not differ for recessionary (0.11, 95% CI -0.02, 0.25) vs non-recessionary periods (0.15, 95% CI 0.01, 0.29). The main study limitation is the potential for misclassified death certificates and we cannot definitively rule out unmeasured confounding.
conclusionsWe found limited evidence of a strong, population-wide detrimental effect of economic downturns on suicide mortality. The overall effect hides considerable heterogeneity by gender, socioeconomic position and time period.
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