Geographic Patterns of Youth Suicide in San Diego County

Our objectives were to evaluate for any cluster patterns of youth suicide deaths and characterize the level of child opportunity in the communities where suicide deaths occurred.

Decedents <18 years were identified from San Diego County Medical Examiner death reports from 2000 to 2020. We mapped decedents' residential Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) codes and calculated suicide rates per 10,000 youths. ZIP codes identified in overlapping spatial statistical approaches - the spatial scan statistic and Local Moran with Empirical Bayes (EB) rates - were considered a cluster for the final analysis. We obtained Child Opportunity Index (COI) scores for each ZIP code to determine if there were differences in: 1) ZIP codes with suicide deaths compared to ZIPs with no deaths 2) differences in distribution of suicide death rates across quintiles of COI.

Scan statistic identified 25 ZIP codes within a cluster (RR 2.6, P = 0.00066). Local Moran with EB rates identified two ZIP codes as a high-high cluster (P < 0.05). The location identified as a cluster in both approaches was in Alpine. The median COI for ZIP codes with suicide deaths was higher at 63.5 (IQR 38-83) compared to 47 (IQR 22.5-75.5) for ZIP codes without suicide deaths. There was a significant difference in suicide rates between Very Low and Moderate levels of Overall opportunity (P = .013).

We identified a cluster of youth suicides in one of the most populous counties in the country. These findings serve to inform policies and prevention programs that aim to mitigate youth suicide mortality.