Suicide and Employment in France: Initial Analysis of Available Data
Suicidal behavior is a complex, multifactorial process. While it is currently difficult to determine the exact number of work-related suicides, certain data do exist that allow us to gain insight into this issue. The objective of this study is to describe suicide mortality and its trends over time among male employees, broken down by industry sector. The data on suicide mortality are drawn from the Cosmop project of the Department of Occupational Health at the InVS. It draws on data from the DADS (Annual Declaration of Social Data) panel of INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies), combined with medical causes of death from CépiDc (Center for Epidemiology on Medical Causes of Death) at Inserm (National Institute of Health and Medical Research). Age-standardized suicide mortality rates were calculated annually from 1976 to 2002 according to the employer’s industry sector and the employee’s socio-occupational group. Over the 1976–2002 period, the age-standardized suicide mortality rate is estimated at 25.1 per 100,000 (in the general population, this rate is 33.4 per 100,000, using the same standardization). No significant trend over time is observed. However, mortality rates differ markedly across economic sectors. The health and social services sector has the highest suicide mortality rate (34.3 per 100,000), followed by public administration (excluding the civil service) (29.8 per 100,000), construction (27.3 per 100,000), and real estate (26.7 per 100,000). Analysis by socio-occupational group shows suicide mortality rates nearly three times higher among employees—and especially among manual laborers—compared to managers. This study reveals inequalities in suicide mortality across different sectors of activity. However, a relative stability over time is observed in this working population between 1976 and 2002, consistent with the trend observed in the general population. Despite certain limitations (in particular, the exclusion of state civil servants from the study population), this study provides an initial exploration of the links between suicide and occupational activity in France. (R.A.)
Author(s): Cohidon C, Geoffroy Perez B, Fouquet A, Le Naour C, Goldberg M, Imbernon E
Publishing year: 2010
Pages: 8 p.
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