The effect of national suicide prevention programs on suicide rates in 21 OECD nations

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 73; no. 9; pp. 1395 - 1400
• Main Authors: Matsubayashi, Tetsuya, Ueda, Michiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2011; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Collectives; Data analysis; Data Collection; Developed Countries; Effectiveness; Elderly; Female; Health Problems; Humans; Implementation; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Models, Statistical; National suicide prevention strategy; OECD; OECD nations; Panel data; Panel data analysis; Prevention; Prevention and actions; Prevention programs; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public Health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Sex; Suicide; Suicide - prevention & control; Suicide - trends; Suicides & suicide attempts; Workers; Young Adult; Youth; National suicide prevention strategy; OECD nations; Suicide; Panel data analysis; Human; Sanitary program; Data analysis; Rate; Prevention; OECD; Strategy; Social medicine; Public health
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.08.022

Suicide has become a serious and growing public health problem in many countries. To address the problem of suicide, some countries have developed comprehensive suicide prevention programs as a collective political effort. However, no prior research has offered a systematic test of their effectiveness using cross-national data. This paper evaluates whether the national suicide prevention programs in twenty-one OECD nations had the anticipated effect of reducing suicide rates. By analyzing data between 1980 and 2004 with a fixed-effect estimator, we test whether there is a statistically meaningful difference in the suicide rates before and after the implementation of national suicide prevention programs. Our panel data analysis shows that the overall suicide rates decreased after nationwide suicide prevention programs were introduced. These government-led suicide prevention programs are most effective in preventing suicides among the elderly and young populations. By contrast, the suicide rates of working-age groups, regardless of gender, do not seem to respond to the introduction of national prevention programs. Our findings suggest that the presence of a national strategy can be effective in reducing suicide rates. ► This paper evaluates whether the national suicide prevention programs in twenty-one OECD nations reduced suicide rates. ► We conduct empirical analysis using data between 1980 and 2004. ► Our analysis shows that the overall suicide rates decreased after nationwide suicide prevention programs were introduced. ► These suicide prevention programs are most effective in preventing suicides among the elderly and young populations.