Alcohol and suicide in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia

Figures & data

Table I. Number of suicides and proportion of cases with presence of alcohol in the blood (BAC+) in males by age in the Arkhangelsk Oblast (AO) and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), 2002–2012

Males	AO		NAO
Age (years)	Number of suicides	BAC+	Number of suicides	BAC+	p
10–19	53	27 (50.9%)	17	13 (76.5%)	0.038
20–29	155	98 (63.2%)	63	47 (74.6%)	0.000
30–39	174	118 (67.8%)	42	32 (76.2%)	0.598
40–49	230	151 (65.6%)	34	27 (79.4%)	0.074
50–59	181	106 (58.6%)	23	19 (82.6%)	0.155
60–69	102	54 (52.9%)	11	5 (45.5%)	0.023
≥70	82	25 (30.5%)	3	0 (0.0%)	0.011
Total	977	579 (59.3%)	193	143 (74.1%)

BAC: blood alcohol content.

Table II. Number of suicides and proportion of cases with presence of alcohol in the blood (BAC+) in females by age in the Arkhangelsk Oblast (AO) and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), 2002–2012

Females	AO		NAO
Age (years)	Number of suicides	BAC+	Number of suicides	BAC+	p
10–19	8	6 (75.0%)	4	4 (100%)	0.237
20–29	22	12 (54.5%)	6	5 (83.3%)	0.539
30–39	32	21 (65.6%)	12	11 (91.7%)	0.077
40–49	47	29 (61.7%)	8	7 (87.5%)	0.547
50–59	35	15 (42.8%)	2	1 (50.0%)	0.116
60–69	19	7 (36.8%)	0	0	0.351
≥70	45	7 (15.6%)	3	1 (33.3%)	0.681
Total	208	97 (46.6%)	35	29 (82.9%)

BAC: blood alcohol content.

Table III. Number of suicides by gender and blood alcohol content (BAC) in the Arkhangelsk Oblast (AO) and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), 2002–2012

	AO		NAO		p	p
BAC (‰)	Males	Females	Males	Females	males	females
0.0	398 (40.7%)	111 (53.4%)	47 (24.3%)	6 (17.1%)	0.000	0.000
>1.0	96 (9.8%)	12 (5.8%)	32 (16.6%)	6 (17.1%)	0.006	0.017
≥1.0–2.0	123 (12.6%)	21 (10.1%)	33 (17.1%)	4 (11.4%)	0.092	0.766
≥2.0–3.0	173 (17.7%)	34 (16.3%)	50 (25.9%)	17 (48.5%)	0.008	0.000
≥3.0	187 (19.2%)	30 (14.4%)	31 (16.1%)	2 (5.7%)	0.315	0.276
Total	977	208 (100%)	193 (100%)	35 (100%)

Table IV. Distribution of suicide cases with and without alcohol present in the blood (BAC+/BAC−) by suicide method in the Arkhangelsk Oblast (AO) and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), 2002–2012

	AO (N=1,185)		NAO (N=228)
Suicide method	BAC+	BAC−	BAC+	BAC−	p
Hanging	626 (58.9%)	436 (41.1%)	126 (77.3%)	37 (22.7%)	0.000
Firearm use	19 (61.3%)	12 (38.7%)	34 (79.1%)	9 (20.9%)	0.094
Cutting	9 (29.0%)	22 (71.0%)	7 (46.7%)	8 (53.3%)	0.239
Other	22 (36.1%)	39 (63.9%)	5 (71.4%)	2 (28.6%)	0.104
Total	676 (57.0%)	509 (43.0%)	172 (75.4%)	56 (24.6%)	0.000

BAC: blood alcohol content.

Table V. Distribution of suicide cases with alcohol present in the blood (BAC+) by gender and suicide method in the Arkhangelsk Oblast (AO) and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), 2002–2012

	AO (N=1185)		NAO (N=228)		p	p
Suicide method	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females
Hanging	534/879 (60.8%)	92/183 (50.3%)	102/133 (76.7%)	24/30 (80.0%)	0.000	0.002
Firearm use	19/31 (61.3%)	0/0 (0%)	31/40 (71.5%)	3/3 (100%)	0.137	0.111
Cutting	9/28 (32.1%)	0/3 (0%)	5/13 (38.5%)	2/2 (100%)	0.015	0.052
Other	17/39 (43.0%)	5/22 (22.0%)	5/7 (71.0%)	0/0 (0%)	0.174	0.588
Total	579/977 (59.3%)	97/208 (46.6%)	143/193 (74.1%)	29/35 (82.9%)	0.000	0.000

BAC: blood alcohol content.

Fig. 1.  Official alcohol sales in Arkhangelsk Oblast (left), the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (middle), and Russia (right) in 2010–2012 (in liters of pure alcohol per capita divided by the number of individuals over 15 years of age in the corresponding region).