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Suicide among New Zealand Maori: is history repeating itself?
Author(s) -
Skegg K.,
Cox B.,
Broughton J.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1995.tb09612.x
Subject(s) - demography , suicide prevention , period (music) , suicide rates , injury prevention , medicine , poison control , psychology , sociology , medical emergency , art , aesthetics
Suicide rates for New Zealanders identified as Maori were analysed for the period 1957‐91 and compared with those for non‐Maori people. Overall, Maori men had about half the risk of suicide of non‐Maori men, and Maori women one‐third the risk of non‐Maori women. Nevertheless, there was a sharp increase in suicide rates for Maori aged 15–24 years during the period studied, with rates for the 1987–91 time period of 35.2/100,000 for men and 6.0/100,000 for women. These were similar to the high suicide rates of young non‐Maori New Zealanders. Suicide among Maori in pre‐European times appears to have been embedded in traditional culture and may have occurred particularly among bereaved women; today the pattern is one of high rates in young men who are likely to have been from their culture.