Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic
4 - (Sym 6) State-level Data on Suicide Mortality During COVID-19 Quarantine: Early Evidence of a Disproportionate Impact on Racial Minorities
Friday, November 18, 2022
8:00 AM – 9:30 AM EST
Location: Shubert/Uris, 6th Floor
Keywords: Suicide, Disaster Mental Health, Risk / Vulnerability Factors Recommended Readings: Schluter, P. J., Généreux, M., Hung, K. K., Landaverde, E., Law, R. P., Mok, C. P. Y., ... & Roy, M. (2022). Patterns of suicide ideation across eight countries in four continents during the COVID-19 pandemic era: repeated cross-sectional study. JMIR public health and surveillance, 8(1), e32140. Dubé, J. P., Smith, M. M., Sherry, S. B., Hewitt, P. L., & Stewart, S. H. (2021). Suicide behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic: a meta-analysis of 54 studies. Psychiatry Research, 301, 113998. Jacobson, N. C., Lekkas, D., Price, G., Heinz, M. V., Song, M., O’Malley, A. J., & Barr, P. J. (2020). Flattening the mental health curve: COVID-19 stay-at-home orders are associated with alterations in mental health search behavior in the United States. JMIR mental health, 7(6), e19347.
Chief Medical Officer The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD Houston, Texas
The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 has raised concern for the potential of increased suicides due to a convergence of suicide risk factors. We obtained suicide mortality data to assess completed suicides during the period of strict stay-at-home quarantine measures in Connecticut and compared this data with previous years. Previous literature suggests that suicide is more common in those who are White, middle-aged or elderly, and male (Curtin and Hedegaard, 2019). However, given the disproportionate burden of medical coronavirus outcomes on the elderly and racial/ethnic minorities, (Webb Hooper et al., 2020) we also analyzed the demographic characteristics of suicide decedents for potential alterations from baseline rates. While the total age-adjusted suicide mortality rate decreased by 13% during the lockdown period compared with the 5-year average, a significantly higher proportion of suicide decedents were from racial minority groups. The age-adjusted rate for non-Whites during the lockdown period (12.0 per 100,000 person years) was 62% higher than the previous year and represented a 6-year high when compared to the same date range in prior years. In contrast, the rate for Whites during the lockdown period (8.4 per 100,000 person years) was at a 6-year low.The reasons for this disparity are likely multifactorial but may include the documented disparate outcomes with COVID-19 for minority groups (Webb Hooper et al., 2020) leading to increased loss of loved ones, economic disadvantages that leave non-White populations more susceptible to financial crises, or stress associated with being forced to work in high-exposure public-facing occupations (St-Denis, 2020). This finding may provide early evidence of a disproportionate impact from the social and economic challenges of COVID-19 on minority populations.