Individual-level factors related to suicide in rural and remote areas of Queensland

Abstract

As examined previously, suicide in rural areas is affected by myriad factors, some of which are unique from the experience of suicide in urban areas. Chapter Two presented an analysis of contextual factors on an aggregated level. This is crucial when we assess suicide risk at an individual level, especially considering that suicide risk and protective factors differ depending on wider social, cultural and economic environments. Consequently, Chapter Three will continue with individual-level analyses, comparing risk factors in rural and urban areas of Queensland. It will also illustrate statistical analyses with four rural case studies. The aims of the quantitative analyses were: • To assess suicide predictors in rural and urban regions by comparing rural suicide to rural sudden-death, and urban suicide to urban sudden-death; and, • To compare the differences between rural suicide and urban suicide. This chapter will use information collected within the frames of the Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP0562078) "Preventing suicide: A psychological autopsy study of the last contact with a health professional before suicide". This study used a case-control psychological autopsy study approach. The Psychological Autopsy (PA) method was applied when investigating completed suicides (study group) and sudden deaths (control group), aged 35+ years in QLD and NSW. The sudden death group included heart attacks, road traffic accidents (RTA) and other accidents, but excluded accidental overdoses, homicides and single vehicle RTAs. The PA obtained information from interviews with next-of-kin (NOK) and healthcare professionals about the deceased for both suicides and sudden deaths.