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This type of article makes me curious, for things like national statistics, do suicide rates get adjusted for the percent of drug overdoses and accidental death

This type of article makes me curious, for things like national statistics, do suicide rates get adjusted for the percent of drug overdoses and accidental deaths that are estimated to be actually suicides?

DanBC 5y ago
It depends on the country. Suicide stats come in roughly three different forms: 1) Coroners reports 2) National statistics organisations 3) Early data / real time surveillance The data from coroners will tend to undercount. Coroners have a tight definition (The person ended their own life, and they had the intent to do so when they did so) and this has to be proved to a standard (balance or probabilities, or sometimes beyond all reasonable doubt). Suicide is an important public health problem, and so some national statistics orgs will have a slightly broader definition. They'll look at all death certificates and coroners reports and code the deaths. So, for England we have https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2014registrations#methodological-changes https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde... > Suicide definition > The previous National Statistics definition of suicide includes deaths from intentional self-harm (where a coroner has given a suicide conclusion or made it clear in the narrative conclusion that the deceased intended to kill themselves) and events of undetermined intent (mainly deaths where a coroner has given an open conclusion) in people aged 15 and over. > Causes of death are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) from 2001 and Ninth Revision (ICD-9) from 1981 to 2000 (World Health Organisation). The US doesn't use this definition. Intent is required in the US definition. There's some lag in these data and sometimes we want a quicker picture. We sometimes use an even broader definition for real-time monitoring that would be something like "suspected self-inflicted death". So, to answer your question: yes, sometimes the stats do get adjusted to include these deaths but mostly not. It's complicated and depends on the country.
- DanBC 5y ago
  Eh, to be more clear: in England, a drug overdose death would tend not to be recorded as a death by suicide unless the coroner had said the person intended to die, or had given a narrative conclusion where intent is unclear. Death by misadventure would normally not be counted as a death by suicide.

DanBC 5y ago

It depends on the country. Suicide stats come in roughly three different forms: 1) Coroners reports 2) National statistics organisations 3) Early data / real time surveillance The data from coroners will tend to undercount. Coroners have a tight definition (The person ended their own life, and they had the intent to do so when they did so) and this has to be proved to a standard (balance or probabilities, or sometimes beyond all reasonable doubt). Suicide is an important public health problem, and so some national statistics orgs will have a slightly broader definition. They'll look at all death certificates and coroners reports and code the deaths. So, for England we have https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2014registrations#methodological-changes https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde... > Suicide definition > The previous National Statistics definition of suicide includes deaths from intentional self-harm (where a coroner has given a suicide conclusion or made it clear in the narrative conclusion that the deceased intended to kill themselves) and events of undetermined intent (mainly deaths where a coroner has given an open conclusion) in people aged 15 and over. > Causes of death are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) from 2001 and Ninth Revision (ICD-9) from 1981 to 2000 (World Health Organisation). The US doesn't use this definition. Intent is required in the US definition. There's some lag in these data and sometimes we want a quicker picture. We sometimes use an even broader definition for real-time monitoring that would be something like "suspected self-inflicted death". So, to answer your question: yes, sometimes the stats do get adjusted to include these deaths but mostly not. It's complicated and depends on the country.

DanBC 5y ago
Eh, to be more clear: in England, a drug overdose death would tend not to be recorded as a death by suicide unless the coroner had said the person intended to die, or had given a narrative conclusion where intent is unclear. Death by misadventure would normally not be counted as a death by suicide.