Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Amid Startling Increase In Suicides Across Country, New Research Finds Powerful Link To Economic Hardship
The Hill: Suicide Rates On The Rise, With Steep Incline In Rural US: Study
A new study published Friday said suicide rates are on the rise, with a particularly stark increase in rural communities. The suicide rate among Americans aged 25-64 rose by 41 percent from 1999 to 2016, researchers found. The rates were 25 percent higher among people living in rural counties as opposed to those living in major metropolitan areas. (Axelrod, 9/6)
Los Angeles Times: Economic Hardship Tied To Increase In U.S. Suicide Rates
Suicides reached a 50-year peak in 2017, the latest year for which reliable statistics are available. The vast majority of those suicides happened in the country’s cities and suburbs, where 80% of Americans live. But a new study shows that the nation’s most rural counties have seen the toll of suicide rise furthest and fastest during those 18 years. The new research ties high suicide rates everywhere to the unraveling of the social fabric that happens when local sports teams disband, beauty and barbershops close, and churches and civic groups dwindle. (Healy, 9/6)
NBC News: Suicide Rates Are Rising, Especially In Rural America
The study also found that counties with high levels of social fragmentation — based on the levels of single-person households, unmarried residents and transient residents — and a high percentage of veterans had higher rates of suicide. All of those factors were more pronounced in rural counties. The presence of more gun shops was also associated with an increase in suicide rates in all counties, except for the most rural ones, the researchers reported. To take a closer look at suicide rates in America, Steelesmith and her colleagues turned to data from the National Vital Statistics System, a database that includes information on suicide deaths, including year of death, gender, age and county of residence. (Carroll, 9/6)
CNN: Suicide: Living Near A Gun Shop Or Having A Rural Address Puts You At Higher Risk, Study Says
"With the gun shop, this is a new variable that hasn't really been looked at, so that definitely needs more research, but we think it is about accessibility," said co-author Danielle Steelesmith, a researcher with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.The majority of the nearly 40,000 gun deaths in the United States in 2017 were due to suicide, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. (Christensen, 9/6)
