NH Occupational Health Surveillance Program Looks at Suicide Rates By Occupation + Demographics
The New Hampshire Occupational Health Surveillance Program recently completed their analysis of New Hampshire suicide death cases from 2018 to 2022 by demographics and employment (industry and occupation).
Suicide, defined as death caused by self-directed injurious behavior, is ranked the 12th leading cause of death overall in the U.S, claiming the lives of over 45,000 people in 2020. The suicide rate in the U.S. increased 35% from 10.4 per 100,000 population in 2000 to 14.2 in 2018 (National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, 2023).
In New Hampshire, in 2017, suicide was the 8th leading cause of death (with a suicide rate of 19.0 per 100,000 population) -- higher than the national average (New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services & Injury Prevention Center at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth- Hitchcock, 2018).
Study highlights:
There were 1,165 suicides in New Hampshire from 2018 to 2022, accounting for 1.8% of all deaths occurred in the five years, with both the number and percentage decreasing over the five-year period (See Table 1)
Males and the youngest age group (15-24) had the highest proportional mortality due to suicides.
The proportion of suicides among all deaths for males was 2.7%, as compared to 0.8% for females.
The youngest age group (age 15-24) had the highest percentage of suicides as 26.6%.
Unpaid student as an occupation group, had the highest proportional mortality due to suicides (31.4%) among all other occupations.
The top three industry sectors for number of suicides are construction, manufacturing, non-paid workers (see Table 2).
The top industry sectors for percentage of suicides are mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, construction, administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (see Table 3)
The top three occupations for number of suicides are construction and extraction occupations, management occupations, production occupations (see Table 4).
The top three occupations for percentage of suicides are students (unpaid), farming/fishing/forestry occupations, construction/extraction occupations (see Table 5).
For more information and details about the study, contact: Liu Yang, Project Director, at Liu.Yang@unh.edu.
References
National Institute of Mental Health, NIH. (2023). Mental health information—Statistics—Suicide.