[Suicides in Tochigi Prefecture in 2007-2008: epidemiologic features based on police data].
OBJECTIVE
To reveal the epidemiologic features of suicides in Tochigi Prefecture using police data, and to discuss critical points to improve suicide prevention and advantages and disadvantages of police data.


METHODS
Individual data for suicides during a 2 year period of 2007 and 2008 provided by the Tochigi Police were analyzed.


RESULTS
In the observed 2 years, there were 1166 cases of suicide (865 males and 301 females), a higher rate per population in Tochigi than that for the whole of Japan. The age-specific number was highest in the 50's among males, whereas the numbers were similar between the 30's and 70's among females. The age-specific number per population was higher than that for the whole of Japan for individuals in their 20's and 30's. The number was highest in early morning at around 10 o'clock in the weekdays. Of all cases, 58.1% committed suicides at home, and 58.0% were by hanging. As causes of suicides, selected as the 3 most common by the police, health problems were top (61.3%), followed by economic (22.7%) and familial (17.3%) difficulties. With health problems, physical and mental diseases each accounted for approximately half. Those committing suicides because of the economic problems were dominantly males aged 20-69 years, many of whom had multiple debts. One third of the deceased cases left testamentary letters, and 15.9% had experiences of attempted suicide in the past. According to these results, we consider that the following 6 points are important to prevent suicides in Tochigi (1) improvement of school and occupational health targeting males aged 20 to 39 years; (2) persons at high risk should be kept always under close observation by someone such as a family member; (3) those having experience of attempted suicides should be formally treated as high risk persons; (4) consultation systems for various problems, especially for multiple debts, should be prepared and appropriately advertised; (5) mental health care should be provided for patients with physical disorders; and (6) treatment and management for patients with mental illness should be comprehensive. In addition, we noted that the causes of suicides in the police data were based on inferences of police officers investigating the suicide cases so that the validity was poorer than that of psychological autopsy. However, the advantage of the police data was that there was less selection bias because police data covered all the suicides in the area.


CONCLUSIONS
Using police data, the epidemiologic features of suicide in Tochigi Prefecture could here be demonstrated, and guidelines for prevention are indicated. Utility of police data for revealing the epidemiologic features of suicides to provide information for suicide prevention was confirmed.
Department of Public Health, Jichi Medical University.
Yosikazu
Y
Nakamura
Takeshi
T
Ito
Izumi
I
Chihara
Atsuko
A
Sadakane
Kazuhiko
K
Kotani
Yasuko
Y
Aoyama
Ritei
R
Uehara
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016495:Police; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013406:Suicide, Attempted; D000092864:Suicide Prevention