An Annual Survey of Successful Suicide Incidence in Hamadan, western Iran

Abstract Background: Suicide has constituted a critical public health problem for many decades. The number of completed suicide is traditionally high in Iran. The objective of the present study was to describe the patterns of methods of suicide among registered deaths due to suicide in Hamada, western Iran Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all completed suicide cases (n=146) were included from March 2004 through March 2005 based on Hamadanʹs Forensic center registered deaths because of suicide. Supplementary data were gauged through a questionnaire from the attempters’ relatives. All statistical analyses were performed using version 13 of the statistical software package SPSS and an alpha level of .05 for all statistical tests. Results: Prevalence of completed suicide was 8.3 per 100,000 in Hamadan, Iran. From 146 cases, the male-to-female ratio was 7.1:1. Average age of cases was 33.9 yr (Min=10, Max=94) across all age groups, males show consistently higher completed suicide rates than females. Of the 69.2% were from urban population versus 30.8% form rural population. The most common method of suicide was hanging (78.1 %). Other common methods were poisoning (11.6%), and self-burning (6.2%). Conclusion: Suicide rate in Hamadan is high among males through hanging which can be due to substance dependency and unemployment.