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Suicide rates increasing among US workers
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The suicide rate among the U.S. working age population rose 34% between 2000 and 2016 from 12.9 to 17.3 per 100,000 population, according to data published today in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
For the study, CDC researchers examined suicide rates by Standard Occupational Classification major groups of more than 22,000 Americans aged 16 to 64 years who died by suicide in the 17 states participating in the National Violent Death Reporting System in 2012 and 2015.
“A better understanding of how suicides are distributed by occupational group might help inform prevention programs and policies,” Cora Peterson, PhD, from the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and colleagues wrote.
The report showed that suicide rates were highest among men in jobs relating to construction and extraction — 43.6 per 100,000 in 2012, and 53.2 per 100,000 in 2015 —and highest among women in jobs relating to arts, design, entertainment, sports and media — 11.7 per 100,000 in 2012, and 15.6 per 100,000 in 2015. Men in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations and women in food preparation and serving related occupations saw the largest increases in suicide rates from 2012 to 2015: increases of 47% and 54%, respectively.
Other occupation groups that had the highest suicide rates for men in 2015 were jobs relating to arts, design, entertainment, sports and media, and jobs relating to installation, maintenance and repair. Among women, protective service and health care support were the occupational groups with the highest suicide rates in 2015.
The CDC also reported that the lowest suicide rates in 2015 among both men and women were in education, training and library occupations.
In addition, the report included data from a separate analysis of suicide rates among agricultural-related workers, which corrected a retracted 2012 CDC report that had errors in reported suicide numbers and rates by occupational group. For men in the farmers, ranchers and other occupational managers category, the suicide rate decreased from 2012 to 2015, from 44.9 to 32.2 per 100,000 working persons. Rates also decreased for men in the agricultural workers category; the corrected 2012 suicide rate was 20.4 per 100,000 persons and the 2015 suicide rate was 17.3.
“To address the multifactorial etiology of suicide, CDC recommends a comprehensive approach to prevention,” Peterson and colleagues wrote.
CDC highlighted the importance of workplace suicide prevention strategies, which can include employee assistance programs, workplace wellness programs, access to online mental health screening and web-based tools, decreasing stigma toward help-seeking and mental illness and letting employees know about the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255 or www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org). – by Savannah Demko
Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.