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There's only ~3500 people that live in the county. Due to random noise, there's bound to be some small county with shockingly high suicide rates. This would b

There's only ~3500 people that live in the county. Due to random noise, there's bound to be some small county with shockingly high suicide rates. This would be a better, less alarmist, way to look at suicide rates: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/rates_1999_2017.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/rates_1999_2017... Men used to commit suicide at about ~4x the rate of women, now it's closer to ~3.6x. White people commit suicide at high rates - and have for a long time (compared to other races) - and the growth in suicide in white people is outpacing other groups - but the growth rate is actually higher for white women (~68% vs ~41%).

jibe 3y ago
Not because the male suicide rate is declining, but because the female suicide rate is rising faster than the male suicide rate is rising.
giantg2 3y ago
"There's only ~3500 people that live in the county." The trend follows even when evaluated nationally for the urban vs rural rate. https://www.cdc.gov/ruralhealth/Suicide.html https://www.cdc.gov/ruralhealth/Suicide.html
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
  Yeah, but it's 22 per 100,000 nationally, not 63.2 per 100,000 like in the small outlier county. That's about 1/3rd the rate in the time article - that seems alarmist and cherry-picking a small county to make a big story out of a smaller story.
  - giantg2 3y ago
    Eh, the article acknowledges that it's the highest rate nationally and provides the national rate (better disclosure than most articles). Their intent was to interview people affected by it. It's not a study but a news story. It makes sense they'd go to a more afflicted area to make their job easier and get some better ratings. It doesn't make the stories any less insightful to some of the issues faced by similar people. It's just like how the vast majority of gun crime doesn't involve schools, but school shootings get the bulk of the air time while the day to day problems aren't covered in detail, if they're covered at all. They're looking for the most impactful and easy story.
ToValueFunfetti 3y ago
I don't understand the focus on relative growth rates of very differently-sized groups. If the country had only these two groups and we had seen 100 additional deaths, that would mean ~70 additional male deaths and ~30 additional female deaths. While it is significant on its own that women made up an even smaller portion historically, it doesn't seem to me that that is a better description of the problem at large. Not that I think this is a gendered issue; suicide attempt rates are about equal between men and women, and the fact that men more often succeed doesn't really have any bearing on their relative mental health.

jibe 3y ago

Not because the male suicide rate is declining, but because the female suicide rate is rising faster than the male suicide rate is rising.

giantg2 3y ago

"There's only ~3500 people that live in the county." The trend follows even when evaluated nationally for the urban vs rural rate. https://www.cdc.gov/ruralhealth/Suicide.html https://www.cdc.gov/ruralhealth/Suicide.html

onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
Yeah, but it's 22 per 100,000 nationally, not 63.2 per 100,000 like in the small outlier county. That's about 1/3rd the rate in the time article - that seems alarmist and cherry-picking a small county to make a big story out of a smaller story.
- giantg2 3y ago
  Eh, the article acknowledges that it's the highest rate nationally and provides the national rate (better disclosure than most articles). Their intent was to interview people affected by it. It's not a study but a news story. It makes sense they'd go to a more afflicted area to make their job easier and get some better ratings. It doesn't make the stories any less insightful to some of the issues faced by similar people. It's just like how the vast majority of gun crime doesn't involve schools, but school shootings get the bulk of the air time while the day to day problems aren't covered in detail, if they're covered at all. They're looking for the most impactful and easy story.

ToValueFunfetti 3y ago

I don't understand the focus on relative growth rates of very differently-sized groups. If the country had only these two groups and we had seen 100 additional deaths, that would mean ~70 additional male deaths and ~30 additional female deaths. While it is significant on its own that women made up an even smaller portion historically, it doesn't seem to me that that is a better description of the problem at large. Not that I think this is a gendered issue; suicide attempt rates are about equal between men and women, and the fact that men more often succeed doesn't really have any bearing on their relative mental health.