Abstract
Objective
Suicide rates in the working-age U.S. population have increased by over 40% in the last two decades. Although suicide may be linked with characteristics of workplaces and their industries, few studies have reported industry-level suicide rates. No study has reported suicide rates by industry using nationally representative data. This study estimates suicide risks across industries in the U.S. working population.
Methods
Industry-level estimates of suicide risks require substantial data; we combined 29 years of U.S. suicide data using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)-Mortality Linked data from 1986 through 2014, with mortality follow-up through 2015. We conducted survey-weighted Poisson regression analyses to estimate suicide mortality rates and rate ratios across all populations and stratified by gender. All analyses were adjusted first for age, and then for age, employment status, marital status, race/ethnicity, and rurality/urbanicity (demographic-adjusted). Rate ratios compared results for workers in each industry to those for all industries, accounting for the NHIS survey design.
Results
A total of 1,943 suicide deaths were recorded. Age-adjusted suicide rates per 100,000 were highest in the furniture, lumber, and wood industry group (29.3), the fabricated metal industry (26.3), and mining (25.8). Demographic-adjusted rates were higher among men than women in most industries. Demographic-adjusted rate ratios were significantly elevated in the furniture, lumber, and wood industries (Rate Ratio, RR = 1.60, 95% confidence interval, CI = 1.18–2.18); chemicals and allied products (RR = 1.49, 95%CI = 1.04–2.13); and construction (RR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.03–1.41).
Conclusion
Several industries had significantly high suicide rates. Suicide prevention efforts may be particularly useful for workers in those industries.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data are not publicly available and were acquired through special arrangements with the National Center for Health Statistics and Census Bureau.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Ahmed A. Arif
Ahmed A. Arif, MBBS, PhD, Oluwaseun Adeyemi, Sarah B. Laditka, and James N. Laditka, Department of Public Health Sciences, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA.
Oluwaseun Adeyemi
Ahmed A. Arif, MBBS, PhD, Oluwaseun Adeyemi, Sarah B. Laditka, and James N. Laditka, Department of Public Health Sciences, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA.
Sarah B. Laditka
Ahmed A. Arif, MBBS, PhD, Oluwaseun Adeyemi, Sarah B. Laditka, and James N. Laditka, Department of Public Health Sciences, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA.
James N. Laditka
Ahmed A. Arif, MBBS, PhD, Oluwaseun Adeyemi, Sarah B. Laditka, and James N. Laditka, Department of Public Health Sciences, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA.