Methodological proposal for studying suicide as a complex phenomenon.
The authors present a methodological proposal for studying suicide and suicide attempts from a combined socio-anthropological, epidemiological, and psychosocial perspective. This interdisciplinary and complex research model simultaneously examined individual, socioeconomic, historical/cultural, and population data as few studies have succeeded to date. Considering that the present study was conducted in a specific social reality, the authors created a methodological approach to comprehend the effects of a crisis in an industrial restructuring process in a mining company town in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, that was associated with unusually high suicide rates. Since it referred to a small geographic area (with only 100,000 inhabitants), the research is considered an ideal case study. The authors created different strategies to trace the local epidemiological profile, adapted a psychosocial autopsy technique to elucidate suicide cases and a psychosocial harm assessment technique to comprehend suicide attempts, and conducted a local analysis of the socio-cultural context. The methods proposed here (with advantages and limitations) proved productive for elucidating the study hypothesis.
Minayo
Maria Cecília de Souza
MC
Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. cecilia@claves.fiocruz.br
Cavalcante
Fátima Gonçalves
FG
de Souza
Edinilsa Ramos
ER
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data