Economic difficulties related to the increase in the suicide rate in the United States

Sparsely populated or deeply rural, few communities in the United States have escaped a shocking increase in suicides over the past two decades. From 1999 to 2016
, suicide killed 453,577 adults aged 25 to 64 – enough to fill more than 1,000 jumbo jets.

The number of suicides reached a peak of 50 years in 2017, the last year for which reliable statistics are available. The vast majority of these suicides occurred in the cities and suburbs of the country, where 80% of Americans live.

But a new study shows that the country's most rural counties have seen the number of suicides increase fastest and most rapidly over the last 18 years.

New research everywhere links high suicide rates to the dismemberment of the social fabric that occurs when local sports teams dissolve, beauty salons and hair salons close, and churches and citizen groups weaken. . But in rural counties in particular, he finds a strong link between suicide and economic deprivation – a measure that takes into account poverty, unemployment, low education and dependency.
on government aid.

The study also found that in countries where health insurance is lacking and in those where veterans make up a larger proportion of the population, suicide rates were higher during the study period 18 years old.

And in all but the most rural counties, the more shops selling firearms, the higher the suicide rate – a finding that highlights the risk that comes with easy access to firearms. fire.

While steeply rising suicide rates have contributed to a lasting decline in life expectancy in the United States, study findings suggest that efforts to save Americans from self-destructive despair must be focused on fighting loneliness, revitalizing disadvantaged communities, expanding access to health care and restricting access to firearms.

And this suggests that the economic decline of the country's rural outposts has generated a desperation that should not be overlooked.

"Suicide rates in rural counties are particularly likely to be disadvantaged," wrote a team led by researchers at Ohio State University in the Friday edition of the journal JAMA Network Open. "Rural counties present unique challenges and deserve targeted suicide prevention efforts."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that the age-adjusted suicide rate increased from 10.5 deaths per 100,000 population in 1999 to 14.0 per 100,000 in 2017, an increase of 33%. Suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death among people of all ages in the United States. While rural counties have long dominated suicide rates among city dwellers, the gap has further widened over these years.

Across the country, the new study found that counties with suicide rates well above the national average tended to be in western states (including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming). ), in the Appalachians (including Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia). and in the Ozarks (Arkansas and Missouri).

A snapshot of snapshots of suicide rates since the turn of the century reveals a growing geography of discouragement that is only dissociated from a few – almost all urban – islands where suicide rates have increased only moderately.

In a series of cards, high suicide rates appear first
2002 to
2004 in scattered areas in the American southwest, the west of the mountain, the Appalachians and the most remote areas of Alaska.

From 2008 to 2010, above-average suicide rates clouded much of the mountainous west and spread across Oregon and northern California up to the coast. Peaceful. And they have firmly established themselves in the heart of the Midwest and the counties of the Upper Midwest Industrial.

Between 2014 and 2016, the increase in suicide rates has spread over the vast expanse of the western US, sparing most counties on the California coast, the county of Sonoma in San Diego. They also covered the industrial Midwest and appeared in the rural counties of southern Mississippi and Louisiana, in the mid-Atlantic states of the Atlantic and in New England.

Danielle L. Steelesmith, the lead author of the study, said the findings on firearms deserved further investigation. But she noted that this is not the first time researchers have seen that where access to firearms is greater, the number of suicides committed
with a gun.

The only exception was the 20% of counties classified as rural – those with no city of more than 2,500 inhabitants. Steelesmith said that the fact that the density of arms stores in these countries is not related to an increased suicide risk may reflect a vital fact of rural life: most homes already have a firearm ;

But in counties with cities of more than 2,500 people, the extra access provided by more armories can make a difference.

"It's a relatively small association," said Steelesmith. "In a large metropolitan county, an additional armory would increase the number of suicides from one to two people. But at the national level, it potentially represents a lot of people. "

The new analysis helps to explain why suicides, drug overdoses and other so-called "desperate deaths" have devastated white white people while touching African-Americans and Latinos a little bit more, said a senior analyst. Brookings Institution Carol Graham.

In the more metropolitan counties, the long-term poor – including the communities of color – seem to be able to resist despair by accessing shared resources such as urban parks, barber parlors and community churches, and by exploiting the networks. who have supported them for generations. difficulties, Graham said. In addition, they are closer to a wide range of employment opportunities.

Even in minority-dominated rural counties, such common institutions have existed for a long time, helping Blacks and Latinos overcome long-standing poverty, she said.

In rural counties dug by the more recent economic decline, communities of religious congregations, Grange meetings and even high school football games have shrunk. And when people have fled, those left behind are becoming increasingly isolated from each other, "said Graham, who is studying the geography of happiness and despair and the social, economic and political factors that contribute to poverty. health of the population.

"These are places that were prosperous rural areas, quite close to cities and production hubs," she said. "These are places that fit a stereotypical image of a stable blue-collar existence – and a pretty good existence – for whites in the center."

With the collapse of extractive industries such as coal mining, the departure of manufacturing jobs, and an agricultural economy in crisis, "these communities have just reversed," said Graham Graham. "And the people in those places have become clueless. You would have an idea of ​​where everything went. And of those who remain, you do not see optimism for the future. "

Steelesmith said that one of the study's findings – that "social capital" in the form of clubs, churches, schools, and group activities was associated with lower suicide rates – offers hope for the rural population in the grip of economic deprivation.

Maintaining friendships and building relationships with others "are things that residents can do for themselves," she said.