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Suicide and marital status in the United States, 1991-1996: is widowhood a risk factor?
Jason B Luoma1, Jane L Pearson
1Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA.
Objectives:
This study examined whether marital status is associated with suicide rates among various age, sex, and racial groups, in particular with widowhood among young adults of both sexes.
Methods:
US national suicide mortality data were compiled for the years 1991-1996, and suicide rates were broken down by race, 5-year age groups, sex, and marital status.
Results:
Data on suicide rates indicated an approximately 17-fold increase among young widowed White men (aged 20-34 years), a 9-fold increase among young widowed African American men, and lesser increases among young widowed White women compared with their married counterparts.
Conclusions:
National data suggest that as many as 1 in 400 White and African American widowed men aged 20-35 years will die by suicide in any given year (compared with 1 in 9000 married men in the general population).
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