Primal Health Databank: Study
| Entry No: | 0990 |
| Title: | Effect of month of birth on the risk of suicide. |
| Author(s): | Salib E, Cortina-Borja M |
| Reference: | Br J Psychiatry. 2006 May;188:416-22. |
| Place of Study: | UK |
| Abstract: | The aim was to examine the association between suicide and month of birth using suicide data for a 22-year period in England and Wales. The sample size of 26 915 suicides greatly exceeds all previous studies.
The authors analysed all suicides (ICD-9 codes E950-959) and deaths from undetermined injury (E980-989) reported between 1979 and 2001 in England and Wales for persons born between 1955 and 1966, using Poisson and negative binomial generalised linear models with seasonal components.
Birth rates of people who later kill themselves show disproportionate excess for April, May and June compared with the other months. Overall, the authors found an increase of 17% in the risk of suicide for people born in the peak month (spring-early summer) compared with those born in the trough month (autumn-early winter); this risk increase was larger for women (29.6%) than for men (13.7%). |
| Keyword(s): | seasonality of birth, suicide |
| Discussion: | No discussion mentioned for this entry |
| See Also: | No related entries mentioned for this entry |
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