The financial crisis called the Great Recession may have contributed to an increase in suicides in middle-aged Americans.
While mental health problems are the leading factor in suicide, problems associated with money, a job, or legal issues played a role in 37.5% of all suicides in middle-aged people in 2010, according to a new study. In 2005, before the recession started, financial issues were a factor in about 33% of such suicides in 2005.
Financial pressure may be the factor that triggers a suicidal action in someone who may have only been considering suicide. People in middle age were more likely to suffer an economic hardship such as a salary reduction during the recession, compared to younger workers, according to the study. More than one in four works aged 50 to 64 had a salary reduction during the recession compared to one in five younger workers.
Suicides among people aged 40 to 64 have risen by 40% since 1999, the study found. However, that slow and steady increase jumped dramatically between 2007, the start of the recession, and 2010.
"The middle-aged bear the brunt of economic stress associated with a downturn," said Katherine Hempstead, director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University in Princeton, NJ, and an author of the study. "They're the bread-winner groups who are raising kids, paying for college, planning for their retirement and supporting their elderly parents," she told Healthday.com.
The study used data from 16 states that report to the National Violent Death Reporting System. The system collects detailed information on violent deaths from sources such as medical examiner and coroner reports, toxicology reports, law enforcement records, homicide reports and death certificates.
Although the study found an association between an increase in suicides and the economic downturn, there is no way to know if there is a cause-and-effect relationship.
The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and can be read at http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(14)00662-X/fulltext.
