The neighbourhood socio-demographic context of teenage girls' deliberate self-harm.
This study investigates whether living area characteristics relate to the commission of self-inflicted injuries and to psychiatric consultation among teenage girls. An ecological study was conducted at the parish level. Seven descriptors of the population's sociodemographic composition were selected and psychiatric health care seeking and hospitalization for deliberate self-harm (DSH) among girls aged 12-19 years were considered (years 1999-2003). For each parish characteristic, three levels of concentration were determined and health outcomes were compared between levels using rate ratios (RR). Acute psychiatric consultation was strongly associated with all parish characteristics, particularly with the concentration of female-headed households. For hospitalization for DSH, RR were significantly higher in parishes with higher concentrations of female-headed poor families, social welfare recipients and low-income people. Teenage girls' acute psychiatric consultations more than their rate of DSH injuries are affected by parish compositional characteristics. The contextual, family-related and individual mechanisms lying behind this deserve further investigation. This may have implications for prevention strategies and for the allocation of care.
Reimers
A
A
Centre for Public Health, Norrbacka, SE 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. anne-mari.reimers@sll.se
Laflamme
L
L
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012924:Social Conditions; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology