z-logo
Premium
Health Problems and Male Firearm Suicide
Author(s) -
Hempstead Katherine,
Nguyen Tuan,
DavidRus Richard,
Jacquemin Bretta
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.2012.00123.x
Subject(s) - suicide prevention , medicine , occupational safety and health , injury prevention , poison control , suicide methods , human factors and ergonomics , medical emergency , psychiatry , suicide rates , pathology
Drawing on constructs of masculinity as it relates to both gun ownership and men's health, we use a rich data set, the N ew J ersey V iolent D eath R eporting S ystem as well as hospital discharge data, to analyze 3,413 completed male suicides between the years of 2003 and 2009. We test the hypotheses that the use of firearms is more common when physical health problems are cited as suicide circumstances, and that suicide decedents who use firearms have poorer physical health than those who used other methods. Results show that firearms are disproportionately used in male suicides when physical health is listed as a circumstance. Additionally, among suicide decedents with a hospitalization during the 3 years prior to death, those who used firearms were in poorer health than those who used other methods. These findings have implications for prevention efforts, because restricting access to lethal means is an important aspect of suicide prevention.

This content is not available in your region!

Continue researching here.

Having issues? You can contact us here