Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Race/Ethnicity And Potential Suicide Misclassification: Window On A Minority Suicide Paradox?, Ian Rh Rockett, Shuhui Wang, Steven Stack, Diego De Leo, James L. Frost, Alan M. Ducatman, Rheeda L. Walker, Nestor D. Kapusta

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Background

Suicide officially kills approximately 30,000 annually in the United States. Analysis of this leading public health problem is complicated by undercounting. Despite persisting socioeconomic and health disparities, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics register suicide rates less than half that of non-Hispanic Whites.

Methods

This cross-sectional study uses multiple cause-of-death data from the US National Center for Health Statistics to assess whether race/ethnicity, psychiatric comorbidity documentation, and other decedent characteristics were associated with differential potential for suicide misclassification. Subjects were 105,946 White, Black, and Hispanic residents aged 15 years and older, dying in the US between 2003 and 2005, whose …

Discrepant Comorbidity Between Minority And White Suicides: A National Multiple Cause-Of-Death Analysis, Ian Rh Rockett, Yinjuan Lian, Steven Stack, Alan M. Ducatman, Shuhui Wang

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Background

Clinician training deficits and a low and declining autopsy rate adversely impact the quality of death certificates in the United States. Self-report and records data for the general population indicate that proximate mental and physical health of minority suicides was at least as poor as that of white suicides.

Methods

This cross-sectional mortality study uses data from Multiple Cause-of-Death (MCOD) public use files for 1999–2003 to describe and evaluate comorbidity among black, Hispanic, and white suicides. Unintentional injury decedents are the referent for multivariate analyses.

Results

One or more mentions of comorbid psychopathology are documented on the death …