Author(s):
Santana, Paula ; Costa, Cláudia ; Cardoso, Graça ; Loureiro, Adriana ; Ferrão, João
Date: 2015
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/142827
Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Project/scholarship:
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/COMPETE/122566/PT;
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/5876-PPCDTI/PTDC%2FATP-GEO%2F4101%2F2012/PT;
Subject(s): RISK-FACTORS; Economic crisis; Material deprivation; MENTAL-HEALTH; 15 EUROPEAN CITIES; RURAL SUICIDE; Suicide; Rurality; SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITIES; MORTALITY; TIME-TREND ANALYSIS; FINANCIAL CRISIS; SMALL AREAS; SOUTH-KOREA; Spatial determinants; Suicide; Material deprivation; Rurality; Spatial determinants; Economic crisis; SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Description
The authors would like to thank the referees for their very helpful comments and Karen Bennett for the language review. This research was partially supported by two projects: GeoHealthS - Health Status Geography: An application of the Population Health Index in the last 20 years (PTDC/CSGEO/122566/2010) and SMAILE - Study on Mental Health. Assessment of the Impact of Local and Economic conditioners (PTDC/ATP-GEO/4101/2012), both projects funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Competitiveness Programme - COMPETE and National funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
This study compares the existing statistical association between suicide mortality and the characteristics of places of residence (municipalities), before and during the current economic crisis, in Portugal. We found that (1) the traditional culture-based North/South pattern of suicidal behaviour has faded away, while the socioeconomic urban/rural divide has become more pronounced; (2) suicide is associated with higher levels of rurality and material deprivation; and (3) recent shifts in suicidal trends may result from the current period of crisis. Strategies targeting rural areas combined with public policies that address area deprivation may have important implications for tackling suicide. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
