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Body mass index and suicide methods.

Carl Johan Wingren1, Anders Ottosson1

  • 1Department of Forensic Medicine in Lund, Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine, Sölvegatan 25, SE-223 62, Lund, Sweden; Unit for Forensic Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Malmö, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine
|May 31, 2016
PubMed
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Body mass index (BMI) influences suicide methods. Obesity is linked to higher rates of suicidal intoxication, while underweight individuals show fewer drownings. This finding is crucial for public health and suicide prevention strategies.

Area of Science:

  • Forensic Medicine
  • Public Health
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Overweight and obesity are linked to reduced suicide rates.
  • Limited understanding exists regarding the association between body mass index (BMI) and specific suicide methods.
  • Investigating BMI's role in suicide method selection is crucial for public health insights.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the association between body mass index (BMI) categories and various suicide methods.
  • To identify if BMI influences the choice of suicide method.
  • To provide data for public health initiatives and forensic medicine practices.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized medicolegal autopsy data from Sweden (1999-2013) for external cause deaths (N=39,368).
  • Included 11,715 suicides and 13,316 controls (accidents/homicides).
Keywords:
Body mass indexMedicolegal autopsySuicideSuicide methods

Related Experiment Videos

  • Applied multinomial regression models, adjusting for age, sex, year, and season of death.

    • Main Results:

    • Obesity demonstrated a positive association with suicidal intoxication (OR 1.15 [95% CI 1.02, 1.30]).
    • Obesity showed a negative association with all other studied suicide methods.
    • Underweight was negatively associated with suicidal drowning, with a similar trend observed for hanging in men (OR 0.81 [95% CI 0.65, 1.01]).

    Conclusions:

    • Body mass index (BMI) is significantly associated with the selection of suicide methods.
    • Findings highlight potential public health implications, particularly for preventing suicidal intoxications.
    • Physicians in forensic medicine should consider BMI as a factor when assessing suicide cases with unusual method choices.