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Alcohol Ingestion and Age of Death in Hanging Suicides
Author(s) -
Tse Rexson,
Sims Noel,
Byard Roger W.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.01751.x
Subject(s) - poison control , injury prevention , medical emergency , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , occupational safety and health , medicine , ingestion , forensic engineering , emergency medicine , engineering , pathology
Retrospective review of 100 consecutive, nondecomposed cases of suicide because of hanging was conducted at Forensic Science SA, Australia. Alcohol was detected in 38 cases (38%). The percentage of victims who had ingested alcohol significantly decreased with age ( r 2 = 0.81), with alcohol detected in 57.1% of those aged ≤24 years, compared to 28.5% of those aged between 55 and 64 years, and 0% of those aged ≥65 years. A similar linear relationship between alcohol ingestion and age was found for cases with blood alcohol levels >0.05 g/100 mL ( r 2 = 0.73). The mean ages of those with detectable alcohol (35.2 years) levels >0.05 g/100 mL (35.1 years) and levels >0.1 g/100 mL (37.2 years) were all significantly less than in those with no detectable alcohol (44.4 years) ( p < 0.005, <0.005, <0.05 respectively). A clear relationship between alcohol ingestion and younger age was shown in hanging suicides.