Violent deaths among adolescents in Serbia: past, present and future

The aim of the study was to determine the trend and methods of violent deaths (suicide and homicide) in adolescents aged 15-19 years in Serbia.

Mortality database was drawn from the Statistical Office of Serbia from the 1997-2019 period. To calculate the annual percentage change (APC) of mortality rate (MR) with corresponding 95% confidence interval we used join point regression analysis. Statistical analyses were also performed using the chi-square test and Spearman's rho correlation.

The average suicide rate was 3.65 per 100,000 and homicide rate was 1.36 per 100,000 adolescents. The boys to girls ratio was 4.2 for suicides and 2.7 for homicides. Among girls, suicide rate significantly decreased (APC -20.7%; 95% CI -32.5 to -6.8) and homicide rate insignificantly decreased (APC -19.3%; 95% CI -37.8 to 5.1). Among boys, suicide rate significantly decreased (APC -4.6%; 95% CI -7.0 to -2.0) as well as homicide rate (APC -7.7%; 95% CI -11.5 to -4.3). The most common method of suicide was hanging (195, 44.3%) and nearly one third (198, 32.6%) of violent deaths were caused by firearms. Significantly negative correlation was observed between the Human Development Index (HDI), gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and MR due to suicides and homicides among both genders (p < 0.05).

Increase of GDP and HDI, national preventive intervention and strict application of the provisions of the law regarding the possession and storage of weapons must be implemented in order to continue reducing violent deaths among adolescents.