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Do statistics lie? Suicide in Kildare – and in Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Dermot Walsh ,
Ann Cullen ,
Rachel Cullivan  and
Brendan O'donnell
Dermot Walsh*
Affiliation:
Health Research Board, Dublin, Ireland
Ann Cullen
Affiliation:
Health Research Board, Dublin, Ireland
Rachel Cullivan
Affiliation:
Health Research Board, Dublin, Ireland
Brendan O'donnell
Affiliation:
Health Research Board, Dublin, Ireland
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Dermot Walsh, The Health Research Board, 73 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
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Synopsis

This study, reporting a ten-year investigation of suicide in Kildare, found that the suicide rate based on clinical assessment of coroner's records was very close to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) figure for Kildare and for Ireland as a whole for the same period. Dublin data for 1977–1981 confirmed these findings. Since in the 1960s similar clinical assessment concluded that CSO rates underestimated suicide by a factor of two or over, we believe that changes in CSO coding procedures whereby more deaths are now coded to suicide than was the case in the past have resulted in current CSO data reflecting accurately the rate of clinical suicide. There has been more than a three-fold increase in CSO suicide rates in Ireland between 1968 and 1987. Even allowing for improved CSO practices there still remains a considerable excess of suicide deaths which indicates a doubling of ‘real’ suicide in Ireland over these twenty years.

Type
Orginal Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , November 1990 , pp. 867 - 871
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

REFERENCES

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