Divorce and separation double risk of suicide in men

Marital status and suicide in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study 2000;54: 254-61

Divorced and separated men are twice as likely to commit suicide as married or partnered men, shows research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Data were analysed from a long term US research project into the causes of death, which included around 472,000 men and women. They were followed up over nine years, by the end of which 545 people had committed suicide.

The analysis showed that 50 per cent more white than black men killed themselves during the nine years of follow-up and living on America's West coast carried the highest risk of suicide. But the most significant findings concerned marital status.

Men and women who had divorced or separated were significantly more likely to commit suicide than those staying together. Being single or widowed did not increase the risk. But divorced or separated men were more than twice as likely to commit suicide as married men, and more than four times as likely to kill themselves as women. Among women, age rather than marital status seemed to be the determining factor. The results held true even after adjusting for other factors implicated in risk, such as age, income, and level of education.

Women may cope better with divorce than men, suggest the authors, because they are likely to have greater supportive networks in their lives. And divorce precipitates a loss of social integration, which may lead to clinical depression-itself often a prelude to suicide, they conclude.

Contact:

Dr Augustine Kposowa, Department of Sociology, University of California, Riverside, USA. augustine.kposowa@ucr.edu