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Study says S. India has highest young suicide rate
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-02 09:41 Family conflicts, domestic
violence, failed romances and mental illness have pushed the suicide rate of
young people in southern India to the highest in the world, researchers said
Friday.
Suicide accounts for one-half to three-quarters of all deaths in young women
and a quarter of deaths in young men in the region.
"We have identified rates of suicide that are several-fold higher than those
reported anywhere in the world, especially in young women," said Dr Anuradha
Bose, of the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, in a study in The
Lancet medical journal.
There were 148 suicides per 100,000 young women in the study and 58 per
100,000 for boys, compared to the average suicide rate worldwide of 14.5.
Hanging and poisoning with pesticides, which are easily available in rural
areas, were the most common causes of death.
"The high suicide rates emphasize the need to recognize adolescent suicide as
major public health problem, with an urgent need for intervention," Bose added.
Suicide is a leading cause of death in 15-19 year olds worldwide. In 2000, an
estimated 815,000 young people took their own lives.
It is usually more common in young men than women but Bose and his colleagues
uncovered a high rate of female suicides in their study.
In a commentary on the research in the journal, Wun Jung Kim and Tanvir Singh
of the Medical College of Ohio in the United States said higher suicide rates
among girls have also been reported in China and Singapore.
They suggested that cultural and religious factors and changes in political
and economic systems could be contributing factors.
"One can surmise that intergenerational and gender conflicts are more intense
in traditional agricultural society transforming into an egalitarian industrial
society than in stable, developed countries," they said.
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