Based on death certificates, 9,715 people took their own lives in 2012, but the real figure could be higher, around 10,700 deaths, based on an underestimation of 10%, specifies the National Suicide Observatory (ONS) in his second report which has just been given to the Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Marisol Touraine.
10,000 suicides and 80,000 attempts
“Suicide is a public health tragedy. Every year between 10,000 and 11,000 people end their lives, and around 80,000 people are hospitalized following a suicide attempt. These are shattered lives, bereaved families, often distraught health professionals. It is a society that is also questioning its share of responsibility” declared the Minister during the delivery of the report.
Since 2002, suicide death rates have nevertheless fallen overall by 17% in France. As in most countries, this rate is much higher among men than among women (25.9 against 7.4 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants) and increases with age: it thus exceeds 100 per 100,000 people. in men over 85.
Brittany and Nord-Pas-de-Calais are the most affected regions
Brittany and Nord-Pas de Calais remain the regions where people commit suicide proportionally the most, ahead of Basse-Normandie, Limousin and Pays-de-la-Loire, with rates more than 25% higher than the rate average of metropolitan France. The Midi-Pyrénées, Corsica, Rhône-Alpes and Alsace regions have the lowest rates, while the only region where the suicide rate has increased since 2002 is Lorraine.
To better fight against these regional inequalities, the Minister of Health wants to open medical-administrative and hospital data: “We will allow researchers to access data relating to the causes of death. The state of our knowledge on suicide will thus progress and the preventive actions to be taken can be better defined” underlined Marisol Touraine.
The most frequent modes of suicide are hanging (54%), far ahead of firearms (15%), taking medication or other substances (11%) or jumping into the void (7%). It should be noted that women have more recourse to drugs (25%) while men choose hanging (59%) or firearms (19%).
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