Ecological study of social fragmentation, poverty, and suicide.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between suicide and area based measures of deprivation and social fragmentation.


METHODS
Ecological study.


METHODS
633 parliamentary constituencies of Great Britain as defined in 1991.


METHODS
Age and sex specific mortality rates for suicide and all other causes for 1981-92.


RESULTS
Mortality from suicide and all other causes increased with increasing Townsend deprivation score, social fragmentation score, and abstention from voting in all age and sex groups. Suicide mortality was most strongly related to social fragmentation, whereas deaths from other causes were more closely associated with Townsend score. Constituencies with absolute increases in social fragmentation and Townsend scores between 1981 and 1991 tended to have greater increases in suicide rates over the same period. The relation between change in social fragmentation and suicide was largely independent of Townsend score, whereas the association with Townsend score was generally reduced after adjustment for social fragmentation.


CONCLUSIONS
Suicide rates are more strongly associated with measures of social fragmentation than with poverty at a constituency level.
Whitley
E
E
Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR. elise.whitley@bristol.ac.uk
Gunnell
D
D
Dorling
D
D
Smith
G D
GD
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012931:Social Environment; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D014504:Urban Health