SUICIDE IN MEXICO - SEXUAL AND GEOGRAPHIC AL CHARACTERISTICS (1979-1993)

Violence and its repercussions in the field of health is a topic that has been studied in social and health sciences, although there are som e theoretical and methodical questions that have not been completely s olved, that make it difficult to develop research in this area. Only r ecently public health workers have been involved in the problems of de ath caused by intentional injuries such as homicides and suicides. For its frequency in people with mental health problems, the professional s in this field are theones who have worked in the study and preventio n of this problem, but always since a clinical perspective. Neverthele ss, the global knowledge about suicide requires research from a genera l population perspective in order to identify the high risk groups. Th is paper analyzes from this point of view, the suicides ocurring durin g 1973-1993, registered in the mortality data base, chapter E950-E959 of the Ministery of Health. The studied variables were: age, sex, caus e of death, state and year. Trends and relative risks (RR) were analyz ed with a 95 % of confidence interval (CI) using the Regression Poisso n Model. The average number of suicides rose from 3 in 1979 to 6 in 19 93. The trend is to increase, beta = .035 (CI .032 - .038). The main c auses of death by suicide were: hanging, firearms and explosives and p oissoning by solid and liquid substances. Differences can be seen depe nding on the sex. In males the Trend is to increase with beta .041 (CI .038 - .045), Hanging was the main cause (49 %). The age group of 70 years and over present the higher relative risk, 9.46 (CI 8.86 - 10.1) . In women, the trend is slightly to increase but is not statistically significant. The main cause was Poissoning by Liquid and solid substa nces (35 %), and the higher risk group was 20 to 24 years old, RR 2.51 (CI 2.28 - 2.76). The States of Tabasco, Campeche, Baja California Su r and Quintana Roo, present the Higher Risk to death by suicide. It is necesary to point out that the study based on mortality data, is just part of a wider problem that goes from nonregistered suicides to suic idal ideation, and suicidal equivalent that means all the non-fatal se lf inflicted injuries. The differences observed among age, sex and geo graphical region, show that there are more social aspects involved rat her than individual aspects that need to take into account in order to know the real problem of suicide. It is necessary too, to pay attenti on about the self-inflicted Injuries problems and its research in the health area and to emphasize the need to propose solution measures sin ce the interdisciplinary point of view.