Non-white victims of lethal violence and suicide in the US die significantly younger than their white counterparts
Access to firearms, medical and mental health problems, and socioeconomic factors may help explain inequities
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AVERAGE POTENTIAL YEARS OF LIFE LOST AMONG HOMICIDE VICTIMS, SUICIDE DECEDENTS, AND HOMICIDE-SUICIDE PERPETRATORS, BY RACE AND ETHNICITY. NOTES: ALL DIFFERENCES IN AVERAGE POTENTIAL YEARS OF LIFE LOST ACROSS RACIAL/ETHNIC GROUPS ARE SIGNIFICANT AT P < .001, EXCEPT FOR THE DIFFERENCE ACROSS HISPANIC AND ASIAN PERSONS FOR SUICIDE (NS), AFRICAN AMERICAN AND AMERICAN INDIAN PERSONS FOR HOMICIDE-SUICIDE (NS) AND HISPANIC AND ASIAN PERSONS FOR HOMICIDE-SUICIDE (NS).
view moreCREDIT: ZIMMERMAN ET AL., 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)
In the US, people of color who are killed by violence or die by suicide lose more potential years of life than white victims, according to a new study, which also explored factors that may contribute to these disparities. Gregory Zimmerman of Northeastern University in Boston, US, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on February 7, 2024.
Mounting evidence suggests that, among victims of violence in the US, the average number of potential years of life lost—how much longer the victim would have lived if they survived—is greater for people of color than for white people.
To deepen understanding, Zimmerman and colleagues analyzed data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). The data included a total of 98,617 homicide victims, 230,527 suicide decedents, and 3,962 homicide-suicide perpetrators who died between 2003 and 2019.
In line with prior research, they found that victims who were Hispanic, African American, Asian or Pacific Islander, or American Indian or Alaska Native tended to die at significantly younger ages than white victims.
Next, the researchers used information from the NVDRS and the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to explore if these disparities could be statistically explained by known differences in exposure among the different racial and ethnic groups to factors associated with higher risk of violence.
They found that several such factors—including individual differences, socio-familial factors, and characteristics and context of the violent incident—did indeed statistically account for some of the disparities. These factors included educational attainment, mental health problems, access to firearms, medical problems, and financial challenges.
The researchers say their findings suggest that the observed disparities can be addressed, and they identify several directions for such efforts; for instance, by providing communities of color with resources to boost educational opportunities, improve access to childcare, and address intimate partner violence.
The researchers also note the need for further research, as the NVDRS data only captured US deaths and did so incompletely. Furthermore, the study did not account for other factors that could help explain the observed disparities, such as cultural factors and access to quality medical and mental healthcare.
The authors add: “Findings indicated that non-white homicide victims, suicide decedents, and homicide-suicide perpetrators died significantly younger than their white counterparts. Homicide and suicide exact a high societal cost, and the burden of that cost is disproportionately high among persons of color.”
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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0297346
Citation: Zimmerman GM, Fridel EE, Trovato D (2024) Disproportionate burden of violence: Explaining racial and ethnic disparities in potential years of life lost among homicide victims, suicide decedents, and homicide-suicide perpetrators. PLoS ONE 19(2): e0297346. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297346
Author Countries: USA
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.
JOURNAL
PLoS ONE
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Disproportionate burden of violence: Explaining racial and ethnic disparities in potential years of life lost among homicide victims, suicide decedents, and homicide-suicide perpetrators
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
7-Feb-2024
BU & Howard study finds neighborhood socioeconomic status may play an important role in suicides
Peer-Reviewed PublicationFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, February 7, 2024
BU & Howard Study Finds Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status May
Play an Important Role in Suicides
(Boston)— Attempted suicide is one of the most significant predictors of completed suicide, which is becoming a leading cause of mortality in the U.S., especially among young adults. While prior research has focused mainly on individual-level risk factors for suicide–-such as psychiatric diagnoses, impulsiveness, substance use, previous suicide attempts—there is little information on risk factors at the community level, including the physical and social environment in which people live.
In a new study, researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Howard University College of Medicine have determined there is a complex interplay between individual and community-level factors that may increase or decrease an individual’s vulnerability to suicide. This is one of the few studies to examine community-level risk factors for suicide.
“While the conventional wisdom is that suicide is a death of despair often brought on by adverse circumstances, our study shows this may not be so. What drives suicide risk is likely to be more than individual-level risk and related more to what is happening at the community level and even societal and policy levels,” explains corresponding author Temitope Ogundare, MD, MPH, clinical instructor of psychiatry at BU’s medical school and a psychiatric resident at Boston Medical Center.
The researchers reviewed the Maryland State Emergency Department Database, which contains information on all emergency department visits that did not result in hospitalizations from January 2018 to December 2020. They identified anyone who had a diagnosis of attempted suicide and collected demographic data and other clinical information. They then used a metric called the Distressed Community Index (DCI), developed by the Economic Innovation Group, that utilizes seven metrics to quantify socioeconomic risk. Based on the DCI, they stratified neighborhoods of those individuals who had attempted suicide into five levels, from distressed to prosperous. Using statistical models, they calculated that the risk of attempted suicide was highest in the most prosperous neighborhoods with the risk increasing as individuals moved up the economic ladder.
According to the researchers, this study raises important questions about community-level risk factors for attempted suicides including: Are we under-recognizing and undertreating mental health conditions and substance use disorders in distressed neighborhoods? Are people who attempt suicide in distressed neighborhoods not being seen or treated in the emergency department? Does this finding hold across the U.S.?
The researchers believe these findings call for universal suicide screening and prevention strategies. “What drives suicide risk is likely to be more than individual-level risk and related more to what is happening at the community level and even societal and policy levels. We need more research examining risk and protective factors for suicide at those levels,” said Oluwasegun Akinyemi, MD, MSc, the study’s first author and a senior research fellow at Howard University School of Medicine.
These findings appear online in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.
JOURNAL
Frontiers in Public Health
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Data/statistical analysis
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
The association between community-level economic deprivation and incidences of emergency department visits on account of attempted suicides in Maryland
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