title: Suicide rates and religious commitment in young adult males in Utah.
abstract: Previous studies have used population data to demonstrate an inverse association between suicide rates and religious commitment. This report examines Utah suicide rates for young men aged 15-34 years, stratified by their membership in and commitment to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the predominant religion in Utah. All state death records for males from 1991 to 1995 were obtained and linked to LDS church deceased membership records to obtain a measure of religious commitment that is not self-reported. Religious commitment for LDS church members was determined by age-appropriate priesthood office. Of the 27,738 male deaths reported, 15,555 (56%) linked to an LDS church record using a probabilistic linking program. Using active (high religious commitment) LDS as the reference group, the less-active (low religious commitment) LDS group had relative risks of suicide ranging from 3.28 (ages 15-19 years) to 7.64 (ages 25-29 years); nonmembers of the LDS church had relative risks ranging from 3.43 (ages 15-19 years) to 6.27 (ages 20-24 years). Although the mechanism of the association is unclear, higher levels of religiosity appear to be inversely associated with suicide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, 230 TMCB, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA. hiltons@byu.edu
authors.forename: Sterling C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Hilton
authors.forename: Gilbert W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Fellingham
authors.forename: Joseph L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lyon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D002835:Christianity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014589:Utah / Q000453:epidemiology