[Analysis of spatial patterns and characterization of suicides in Brazil from 1990 to 2015]

This study aimed to analyze the spatial pattern in mortality rates from suicide in Brazil from 1990 to 2015. A spatial analysis was performed for the mortality rates from suicide in municipalities (counties) in three-year periods using Bayesian inference and clusters according to risk of death adjusted by sex and age bracket. The mortality rate from suicide increased from 3.5 deaths in 1990 to 5.3 deaths/100,000 inhabitants in 2015, when there was one death from suicide every 64 minutes. There was a predominance of suicide deaths in males in all the periods, while the variables age and race/color showed some changes. High suicide mortality rates among youth and indigenous people were seen in the most recent three-year period. We observed a loss of areas without suicide reporting, a reduction in areas with low suicide mortality rates, as opposed to an increase in areas with medium rates in all the regions of Brazil. The high rates, previously concentrated in the South of Brazil, had expanded to other regions of the country. Very high rates emerged in southern Mato Grosso do Sul state. Clusters with higher likelihood in all the periods were observed in the South. Suicide mortality rates increased, with changes in the spatial during the 25-year period. Despite the initial concentration of high suicide mortality rates in the South, the deaths spread to other regions of the country with different magnitudes. There was a reduction in suicide deaths among the elderly in the South and an increase in the Northeast, and an increase in deaths in adults and black Brazilians in the Central and among youth and indigenous persons in northwestern Amazonas state.