Estudo ecológico sobre os possíveis determinantes socioeconômicos, demográficos e fisiográficos do suicídio no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1998-2002

Abstract

Epidemiology has identified violence as a major worldwide public health concern. Suicide is clas- sified as violence. This study analyzes the asso- ciation between suicide and socio-demographic factors. The methodological design was ecologi- cal, using correlation techniques and backward multiple linear regression. Normality of the re- siduals in the final model was analyzed. Pro- portional mortality in relation to total deaths was identified as the best outcome for modeling (R 2 = 0.41). The resulting variables were: % Pen- tecostal religion, % single marital status in the population over 10 years of age, mean years of schooling, altitude of the municipality, % homes without latrines, % population over 10 years of age working in the educational sector, and % pop- ulation over 10 years with per capita earnings up to one minimum wage. All these variables were statistically significant at 5%. The results support the idea of the influence of extrinsic causal fac- tors in determination of suicide.