TY - JOUR

T1 - Body mass index and suicide methods

AU - Clinical Sciences, Malmö, Lund University, Department

AU - Ottosson, Anders

N1 - Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

PY - 2016/8

Y1 - 2016/8

N2 - Overweight and obesity is associated with lower rates of suicide. However, little is known about the association with different suicide methods. We studied the association between groups of body mass index and suicide methods. We identified all medicolegal autopsy cases with a cause of death due to external causes in Sweden during 1999-2013 (N = 39,368) and included 11,715 suicides and 13,316 accidents or homicides as controls. We applied multinomial regression models adjusted for age, sex, year and season of death. Obesity was associated with suicidal intoxication, OR 1.15 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02, 1.30] and negatively associated with all other suicide methods studied. Underweight showed a negative association with suicidal drowning and there was an indication towards a negative association with hanging in men OR 0.81 (95% CI 0.65, 1.01). We conclude that body mass index (BMI) is associated with the choice of suicide method. This may be of importance in a public health perspective, e.g. potential for prevention of intoxications. In the practice of forensic medicine, the physician's level of suspicion may rise if the apparent suicidal method is less common for the individual characteristics of the deceased, such as BMI.

AB - Overweight and obesity is associated with lower rates of suicide. However, little is known about the association with different suicide methods. We studied the association between groups of body mass index and suicide methods. We identified all medicolegal autopsy cases with a cause of death due to external causes in Sweden during 1999-2013 (N = 39,368) and included 11,715 suicides and 13,316 accidents or homicides as controls. We applied multinomial regression models adjusted for age, sex, year and season of death. Obesity was associated with suicidal intoxication, OR 1.15 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02, 1.30] and negatively associated with all other suicide methods studied. Underweight showed a negative association with suicidal drowning and there was an indication towards a negative association with hanging in men OR 0.81 (95% CI 0.65, 1.01). We conclude that body mass index (BMI) is associated with the choice of suicide method. This may be of importance in a public health perspective, e.g. potential for prevention of intoxications. In the practice of forensic medicine, the physician's level of suspicion may rise if the apparent suicidal method is less common for the individual characteristics of the deceased, such as BMI.

KW - Adolescent

KW - Adult

KW - Aged

KW - Asphyxia/mortality

KW - Body Mass Index

KW - Case-Control Studies

KW - Drowning/mortality

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Neck Injuries/mortality

KW - Obesity/epidemiology

KW - Overweight/epidemiology

KW - Poisoning/mortality

KW - Sex Factors

KW - Suicide/psychology

KW - Sweden/epidemiology

KW - Thinness/epidemiology

KW - Wounds, Gunshot/mortality

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.05.013

DO - 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.05.013

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27239953

VL - 42

SP - 45

EP - 50

JO - Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

JF - Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

SN - 1752-928X

ER -