Suicide Pattern in the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region

Suicide in the year 2000 has been the 25th leading cause of death in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region and therefore, it could not be considered as one the most urgent health problems. However, different age and sex groups in this region have demonstrateddifferent patterns of suicide, which worthy of consideration. This study uses data based on the ICD9 codes E950-E959 (suicides), which have been provided by the WHO Global Burden of Disease project for 2000, version 1. Different age and sex groups (5-14, 15-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60 and above) standardized rates of suicidal deaths based on the countries’ level of income were plotted and compared with each other. Similar procedure was applied to compare suicide deaths as a proportion of all deaths due to injury.The results show that in the first and the second age groups the rates of suicide are higher in females in comparison to males. For the rest of the age groups the rates of suicide are higher in males in comparison to females. The most high-risk age group amongfemales is the second one (8.6 per 100000) and among males is the last one (10.8 per 100000). Furthermore, plotting suicide deaths as a proportion of all deaths due to injury reveals that in all age groups especially the second one the proportion of such deaths issubstantially higher in females in comparison to males.In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region females in the age group 15-29 and males in age group 60 and above are among the most high-risk people in terms of committing suicide. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the ways of preventing suicideamong on these age groups especially in the countries with low and middle income.