Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:47:51.786Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A small area analysis of self-poisoning and self-injury in the region of Oxford

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

A. M Skrimshire
A. M Skrimshire
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The number of persons attempting suicide in 1972–3 was related to the 1971 Census data by enumeration district in a defined area centred on Oxford City. Variations among enumeration districts in the number of attempters was partly explined by the age and marital state distribution of the population, but a few areas were identified where the high rates were not accounted for in this way. These included areas on council estates, both in the City and outside it, with marked indications of social disadvantage, and a socially mixed and probably rapidly changing inner city area. Persons attempting suicide were predominantly young and included relatively more women and more single people, but otherwise appeared to resemble the population of their immediate areas in terms of distribution by socio-economic group, housing conditions and indicators of social disadvantage. A model was fitted to the 1972–3 data to ‘predict’ the number of attempters in an enumeration district from the Census information. The fit was not entirely satisfactory, and suggested that there was a sub-group of districts with a near zero probability of producing an attempter which was not identifiable from the Census data. When fitted retrospectively to attempted suicide data for 1969 the performance of the model was poor. It was not possible to distinguish the effect of random variation from that of systematic change, but there was some evidence that certain areas with high attempted suicide rates in the City also showed a rapid increase in rates.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , April 1976 , pp. 85 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baldwin, J.A. (1973) Linked record medical information systems. Proc. R. Soc. B, 184, 403.Google ScholarPubMed
Bancroft, J.H.J., Skrimshire, A.M., Reynolds, F., Simkin, S. & Smith, J. (1975) Self-poisoning and self-injury in the Oxford Area, epidemiological aspects 1969–73. Br. J. prev. soc. Med. 29, 170.Google ScholarPubMed
Buglass, D., Dugard, P. & Kreitman, N. (1970) Multiple standardization of parasuicide (attempted suicide) rates in Edinburgh. Br. J. prev. soc. Med. 24, 182.Google ScholarPubMed
Byrne, D.S. (1973) Problem Families, a Housing Lumpen-proletariat? Department of Sociology and Social Administration, University of Durham.Google Scholar
Cormack, R.M. (1971) A review of classification. J. R. statist. Soc. A, 134, 321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullingford, D., Flynn, P. & Webber, R. (1975) Liverpool Social Area Study, Interim Report. Planning Research Application Group Technical Paper TP9.Google Scholar
Evans, D.J. (1973) A comparative Study of the Urban Social Structure in South Wales. Special publication No. 5, Institute of British Geographers.Google Scholar
Giggs, J.A. (1973) The distribution of schizophrenics in Nottingham. Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. 59, 55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hope, K. (1969) A guide to social investment. Appl. Soc. Stud. 1, 21.Google Scholar
Morgan, G.H., Pocock, H. & Pottle, S. (1975) The urban distribution of non-fatal deliberate self-harm. Br. J. Psychiat. 126, 319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
OPCS (1972) Census 1971, County Reports, General Explanatory Notes. HM Stationary Office, London.Google Scholar
Philip, A.E. & McCulloch, J.W. (1966) Use of social indices in psychiatric epidemiology. Br. J. prev. Soc. Med. 20, 122.Google Scholar
Taylor, S. (1974) The Geography and Epidemiology of Psychiatric Illness in Southampton. PhD thesis, University of Southampton.Google Scholar
Timms, D.W.G. (1971) The Urban Mosaic. Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar