ArticleBMJ open2018
Increase in assisted suicide in Switzerland: did the socioeconomic predictors change? Results from the Swiss National Cohort.
Article in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Assisted death in eating disorders: a systematic review of cases and clinical rationales.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Suicide Rates Among Patients Receiving Palliative Care-Descriptive Results of a National Cohort Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Is Assisted Dying Really a Matter for Medical Regulation?The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics · 2025Article
- Knowledge of and Preferences for Medical Aid in Dying.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- International Comparison of Underlying Disease Among Recipients of Medical Assistance in Dying.JAMA internal medicine · 2025Article
- Barriers to connecting with the voluntary assisted dying system in Victoria, Australia: A qualitative mixed method study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2023Article
- Conventional and assisted suicide in Switzerland: Insights into a divergent development based on cancer-associated self-initiated deaths.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
- Socioeconomic Status and Medical Assistance in Dying: A Regional Descriptive Study.Journal of palliative care · 2022Article
- The views of Aotearoa/New Zealand adults over 60 years regarding the End of Life Choice Act 2019.Journal of religion and health · 2022Article
- Association of socioeconomic status with medical assistance in dying: a case-control analysis.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Assisted Suicide in Parkinsonian Disorders.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Article
- "Nothing Hurts Less Than Being Dead": Psychological Pain in Case Descriptions of Psychiatric Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide from the Netherlands: « Rien ne fait moins mal qu'être mort »: La douleur psychologique dans les descriptions de cas d'euthanasie et de suicide assisté psychiatrique aux Pays-Bas.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2020Article
- Does physical ill-health increase the risk of suicide? A census-based follow-up study of over 1 million people.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2020Article
- In-hospital care prior to assisted and unassisted suicide in swiss older people: a state-level retrospective study.BMC geriatrics · 2019Article
- Assisted Suicide in Switzerland: An Analysis of Death Records From Swiss Institutes of Forensic Medicine.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2019Article
- Mortality from suicide among people living with HIV and the general Swiss population: 1988-2017.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine whether the strong increase in assisted suicides in Switzerland since 2008 is linked to a shift in the socioeconomic factors associated with assisted suicide and its related diagnoses.
methodsIn a population-based longitudinal study, we investigated assisted suicides in Switzerland over the period 2003-2014. Two groups of younger (25-64 years) and older (65-94 years) persons were analysed separately and compared. We calculated crude rates and used Cox proportional hazard and logistic regression models to examine associations of assisted dying with gender, marital status, education, religion, neighbourhood socioeconomic status and other variables, and investigated trends over time.
resultsWe identified 3941 assisted suicides among 6 237 997 Swiss residents, 80% of which occurred in the older age group. Crude rates of assisted suicide more than tripled during the study period from 3.60 to 11.21 per 100 000 person-years; the increase was more pronounced in the older age group. Cancer was the most common underlying diagnosis (41.8%), but the percentage dying assisted was highest among patients with diseases of the nervous system (5.25% in the younger and 1.23% in the older age group). The factors associated with assisted suicide did not change during the study period. Female gender, higher education, having no religious affiliation, no children and a Swiss passport, living in a neighbourhood with a higher socioeconomic index and living in the French-speaking part of Switzerland were associated with a higher rate.
conclusionsThe study results do not indicate any shift in socioeconomic factors associated with assisted suicide, but a more pronounced increase in incidence among the elderly.
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