Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
1. Uluslararası 25. Ulusal Klinik Eğitim Sempozyumu, İzmir, Türkiye, 19 - 22 Mayıs 2022, ss.29
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Suicide is a significant public health
problem. It leads to both loss of workforce and remarkable long-lasting
effects on the individuals they leave behind. The fact that suicide causes
loss in many ways has led us to research on this subject. On the other
hand, marriage is one of the most important relationships in life, which
includes significant gender differences. This study investigates the
relationship between completed suicide and age at marriage, divorcemarriage rate, percentage of consanguineous marriage among Turkish
women and men. There is a heterogeneous distribution of 81 provinces
in Turkey in terms of psycho-socio-demographic characteristics and
gender equality. Therefore, the heterogeneity makes it possible to assess
completed suicide rates in psycho-social-demographics. Additionally,
studies on suicide or mortality by suicide have frequently overlooked
sex differences, although men and women have a variety of suicide
patterns at a variety of rates. For this reason, we considered it is essential
to inquire about sex differences and focused on this issue in our study.
METHODS: We calculated marriage age, early marriage ratios, crude
suicide rate, and mortality by suicide (completed suicide numbers in
1000 deaths) for both sexes among 81 provinces of Turkey. We used
datasets of the Turkish Statistical Institute from the year 2019. No ethics
committee approval was needed since we utilized publicly available data.
We represented our data as mean and standard deviation or median and
quartiles.
RESULTS: Women’s crude suicide rate median value was 1.87 (1.25-
2.58). Women’s mortality by suicide median was 3.51 (2.13- 5.11).
Men’s crude suicide rate median was 6.95 (5.00- 8.68). Men’s mortality
due to suicide was 10.67 (8.45- 13.65). Consanguineous marriages
were 2.67% (1.62%- 5.07%) of all marriages. Divorces were 25.75%
(17.42%- 33.19%) of marriages. Women’s first marriage age was 24.60
± 1.07, while men married at 27.67 ± 0.89. The early marriage ratio in
1000 marriages was 30.25 (17.20- 53.17) for women 1.77 (1.08- 2.76)
for men.
Women’s mortality by suicide was related to consanguineous marriage
percentages in all marriages (r=0.366 p=0.001) and divorce marriage
ratios (r=-0.240 p=0.031). Women's early marriage ratios were
correlated to women’s and men’s mortality by suicide (respectively
r=0.294 p=0.008, r=0.241 p=0.030). Men’s mortality by suicide was also
correlated to consanguineous marriage percentages (r=0.233 p=0.037).
CONCLUSIONS: Our study has an ecological design, which does
not provide a causal relationship. With this in mind, we believe it is
crucial to assess suicide-related factors for both genders separately. As
for indicators of patriarchal culture, consanguineous marriages and early
marriages may harm both women’s and men’s mental health. We may
interpret divorce marriage ratios as an egalitarian social environment.
Although higher divorce rates are related to lesser female mortality
by suicide, there is no relationship between divorce rates and male
mortality by suicide.