The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #66850

Laurel Hourani, PhD¹, Lucy Davidson, MD², Nita Patel, MPH², Monique Clinton-Sherrod, PhD¹, Maureen Marshall, MS², and Alex Crosby, MD; MPH³. (1) Research Triangle Institute, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, 919-467-7103, hourani@rti.org, (2) Task Force for Child Survival and Development, 750 Commerce Drive, Suite 400, Decatur, GA 30030, (3) Centers for Disease Control, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333

Background: Using suicide and suicide attempt rates to track a community’s progress in implementation of the public health goals developed for the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) can be problematic due to the infrequency and relative distance of these rates from some types of prevention activities. Methods are not yet available for communities to measure reliable, direct suicide prevention activity outcomes. Study objectives include developing a set of easily obtainable, suicide-relevant proxy measures, also called indicators, of a community’s health status that can be used to guide suicide prevention efforts. Methods: Columbus/ Muscogee County, Georgia was identified as a model community and study population to develop activities and quantitative indicators for suicide prevention aligned with the NSSP. Existing data were gathered across 159 Georgia counties for nine potential social indicators (i.e., rates of net migration, divorce, unemployment, violent crimes reported, DUI accidents, high school dropouts, Temporary Aid to Needy Families, percent of population 65 and older and percent population of white males). Data on the social indicators from 1995 through 1999 were averaged and analyzed to determine their correlation with aggregated 5-year county suicide rates. Results: Results of multivariate modeling procedures showed DUI accidents and percent of population age 65 and over to be significant correlates of the suicide rate controlling for other potential indicators. Conclusion: These preliminary data may provide a useful proxy model of a county’s 5-year suicide rate among counties reporting 20 or more suicides. Future research with additional indicators and other states will help determine the generalizability of these findings to other communities.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to conceptualize ways social indicators can measure progress in suicide prevention and describe the utility of county-level indicators in prevention planning.

Keywords: Community Preventive Services, Suicide

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.