Suicide report underestimated number of hospital admissions

Jim Anderton

Red-faced health officials have pulled an optimistic report on suicide trends because they failed to count the number of hospital admissions correctly.

Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton publicly praised the report last month, saying any reduction in people taking their own lives was good.

"It provides some comfort to see the long-term trend still appears to be heading in the right direction with a continued decline or levelling-off of self-inflicted deaths," he said

But he also pointed to the increase in hospitalisation rates, up from 66.6 hospitalisations for every 100,000 New Zealanders in the mid-1980s to 82.5 hospitalisations per 100,000 in 2002-2004 as a problem.

"You know there is still much to be done," he said.

The Ministry of Health has now admitted there is even more to be done, and it had severely undercounted the numbers of attempted suicide patients being admitted to hospital.

The original report, Suicide Trends in New Zealand 1983-2004, claimed the nation's suicide death rate had dropped by 15 per cent after peaking in the mid to late 1990s.

"Despite the number of self-inflicted deaths increasing from 465 in 2002 to 516 in 2003, three-yearly averages show suicide rates declining after peaking in the mid to late 90s," it said.

But in a statement placed on its website, it later said: "The data in the original report was not incorrect, rather it was the way in which it was interpreted and written up."

Each person hospitalised for attempted suicide was counted once, but if they then tried again, and were again sent to hospital, those stays in hospital were not counted.

"This situation resulted in an undercounting of the number of self-harm events," the ministry said.

It planned to re-publish the study in early November, with new data that had recently become available, and said it would be a more useful suicide reference report.

It would extend hospitalisation data from a range of 1983-2004, taking it back to 1979. Data for deaths would also be extended from the original 1983 back as far as 1921.

This would give greater insight into "the pattern and changing mode of suicide" and allow the document to become a standard reference for suicide in New Zealand.

According to Mr Anderton, publishing trends in suicide data is important for prevention efforts and to show whether progress is being made in reducing suicidal behaviour, both overall and for specific population groups.

The withdrawn report said the 25- to 34-year-old age group had the highest suicide rate, though youth suicide rates remained a concern.

Suicide was more prevalent among men, with three times as many men as women killing themselves between 2001 and 2003.

Maori had the highest suicide rates, especially Maori males under 35 years old, between 2000 and 2003.

Suicide and attempted suicide rates are highest in poor areas, and women were more likely than men to be hospitalised for suicide attempts.

- NZPA