Biomaterial Database

Suicide mortality among American Indians and Alaska Natives, 1999-2009. 2014

Mose A Herne, and Michael L Bartholomew, and Rose L Weahkee

Mose A. Herne is with the Division of Planning, Evaluation, and Research, Office of Public Health Support, Indian Health Service (IHS), Rockville, MD. Michael L. Bartholomew is with the Division of Epidemiology and Disease Prevention, Office of Public Health Support, Rockville, MD. Rose L. Weahkee is with Field Operations, Phoenix Area Office, IHS, Phoenix, AZ.

OBJECTIVE We assessed national and regional suicide mortality for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons. METHODS We used 1999 to 2009 death certificate data linked with Indian Health Service (IHS) patient registration data to examine death rates from suicide in AI/AN and White persons. Analysis focused primarily on residents of IHS Contract Health Service Delivery Area counties; Hispanics were excluded. We used age-adjusted death rates per 100,000 population and stratified our analyses by age and IHS region. RESULTS Death rates from suicide were approximately 50% higher among AI/AN persons (21.2) than Whites (14.2). By region, rates for AI/AN people were highest in Alaska (rates = 65.4 and 19.3, for males and females, respectively) and in the Northern Plains (rates = 41.6 and 11.9 for males and females, respectively). Disparities between AI/AN and White rates were also highest in these regions. CONCLUSIONS A coordinated, multidisciplinary effort involving federal, state, local, and tribal health officials is needed to address this important public health issue.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007198	Indians, North American	Members of indigenous North American populations with pre-colonial contact origins.	Amerinds, North American,Indigenous North Americans,American Indian, North,American, Indigenous North,Amerind, North American,Indian, North American,Indigenous North American,North American Amerind,North American Amerinds,North American Indian,North American Indians,North American, Indigenous
D008297	Male		Males
D008875	Middle Aged	An adult aged 45 - 64 years.	Middle Age
D011159	Population Surveillance	Ongoing scrutiny of a population (general population, study population, target population, etc.), generally using methods distinguished by their practicability, uniformity, and frequently their rapidity, rather than by complete accuracy.	Surveillance, Population
D003644	Death Certificates	Official records of individual deaths including the cause of death certified by a physician, and any other required identifying information.	Death Records,Certificate, Death,Certificates, Death,Death Certificate,Death Record,Record, Death,Records, Death
D004930	Inuit	Inuktitut-speakers generally associated with the northern polar region.	Aleuts,Eskimos,Inuits,Inuk,Inupiats,Kalaallits,Aleut,Eskimo,Inupiat,Kalaallit
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293	Adolescent	A person 13 to 18 years of age.	Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000328	Adult	A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available.	Adults