MIGRANT SUICIDE RATES IN AUSTRALIA AND IN COUNTRY OF BIRTH

Background. Various studies from Australia, Canada and the United Stat es have shown significant rank correlations between the suicide rates of immigrants and those of their country of birth (COB). This study co mpares the rank ordering of age standardized suicide rates of immigran ts in Australia for two periods, 1961-70 and 1979-90: (a) between each period; and (b) with their COB for each period. Methods. Data were ob tained from the World Health Organization Annual Statistics and from t he Australian Bureau of Statistics. Comparisons were made for 11 count ries from England and Wales, Ireland and Europe, for which there was a sufficiently large number of immigrant suicides to warrant statistica l analysis.Results. The data showed considerable heterogeneity in rate s of immigrants from various countries, with increased rates in Austra lia compared with their COB. There were consistently significant Spear man rank correlations between the rates after immigration and those in their COB for each period, and between rates in the two periods for b oth immigrants and for their COB, despite increases in suicide rates, and considerable socio-economic demographic changes between the variou s countries over that time span. Conclusions. The findings are used to argue two conclusions: (i) the important influence of pre-migrant soc ial and cultural experiences in subsequent suicide rates in immigrants in their host country; and (ii) to support the case for the reliabili ty of using international suicide data for comparative epidemiological research.