Suicide and deprivation in Scotland

Abstract

The General Register Office for Scotland provided data on all deaths by suicide (codes E950-959 in the revision of the International Classification of Diseases) and deaths undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted (codes E980-E989) which had occurred among Scottish residents between 1981 and 1993. Undetermined deaths were considered to be suicide, and death rates were standardised to the World Health Organisation's European population. I investigated the associations with deprivation by using Carstairs deprivation scores to group postcode sectors into three groups described as affluent, average, and deprived.2 The three categories included about 20%, 60%, and 20% of the Scottish population.