KEY FINDINGS

This section presents some illustrative findings contained in the figures and tables of the report. It is not intended to be and exhaustive analysis of the tabulated data. When possible, U.S. data as well as data for other states are presented in order to provide a comparative context for Arizona suicide mortality statistics.

• During 1997, a total of 810 Arizona residents committed suicide, an increase of 48 or 6.3 percent from the 1996 figure of 762 (Table 1).
• The Arizona age-adjusted suicide mortality rate increased from 16.3 suicides/100,000 persons in 1996 to 16.9/100,000 in 1997 (Figure 1, Table 1).
• Relative to people nationally, Arizonans were more likely to kill themselves in each year from 1987 to 1997 (Figure 1, Table 1).
• The 1997 Arizona suicide death rate was 64 percent higher than the national rate, and 61 percent higher than the year 2000 national health objective of 10.5 suicides per 100,000 population.
• Arizona adolescents 15-19 years old experienced a sharp increase from 1996 to 1997 in their risk of suicide death. The suicide mortality rate among adolescents rose by 30.2 percent from 18.2/100,000 in 1996 to a rate of 23.7/100,000 in 1997 (Figure 3, Table 3).
• In any given year between 1987 and 1997, the suicide rates among Arizona adolescents 15-19 years old were substantially greater than the suicide rates among their national peers (Figure 3, Table 3).
• Suicide rate among elderly Arizonans 65 years and older increased by 3.4 percent from 23.3/100,000 1996 to 24.1/100,000 in 1997, but it was the second lowest rate of the 1987-1997 period.
• Except the youngest elderly (those 65-69 years old), all age-specific suicide mortality rates among Arizonans aged 70 and older exceeded by at least 40 percent the corresponding U.S. rates (Figure 4).
• In each year from 1987 to 1993, the suicide rate among elderly persons (65 years and older) was the highest among all age groups in Arizona (Table 1). In 1997, the highest suicide rate was among Arizonans 35-44 years old (Table 1).
• The age-adjusted suicide mortality rates for American Indian and non-Hispanic white residents of Arizona were at least 83 percent higher than the year 2000 national health objective of 10.5 suicides per 100,000 persons. In contrast, the 1997 age-adjusted suicide mortality rate among Hispanics was 6.7 percent lower than the objective (Figure 5).
• Married Arizonans clearly were the least likely to end their own lives compared to Arizonans in other marital statuses (Figure 6, Table 15). Marital disruption in the form of divorce or death of a spouse was a factor that increased the risk of committing suicide. A widowed person was 1.8 times and a divorced person 2.6 times more likely to end his/her own life than a married Arizonan.
• Firearms accounted for 66.4 percent of suicide deaths in 1997 (Table 17). Male suicides used firearms more frequently (70.1 percent) than female suicides (50 percent). Asian suicide victims were the least likely to use firearms (41.7 percent) and more likely than any other ethnic group to die from hanging or strangulation (33.3 percent; Figure 7, Table 20).
• In his classic 1897 work "Suicide: A Study in Sociology", Emile Durkheim proposed that suicide is directly linked to the degree of cohesion present in a society and to person's feelings of social integration. According to Durkheim, suicide proneness exists only in relation to specific social conditions.

  One of the indirect measures of social integration is the proportion of the population which is native born in an area. Arizona continues to be one of the states lowest in rates of native-born residents. According to the 1990 census, only one in three (34.1 percent) Arizonans were native born. Moreover, younger Arizonans are more likely to be native-born than older adults. The 1990 rate of native-born among persons 64 years and younger (37.9 percent) was 4.5 times greater than the rate of 8.4 percent among elderly Arizonans.

  Using the 1990 census counts of Arizona residents by state of birth, it is possible to compare suicide rates among native-born and non-native Arizonans.

• The average annual suicide mortality rate in the 1983-1997 period was 1.6 times higher for non-native (20.9 per 100,000) than native born Arizonans (12.8 per 100,000, Figure 8, Table 23). Non-natives were particularly over-represented among elderly suicides (95 percent of suicides among Arizonans 65 years and older). The suicide rate for non-native elderly (30.2) was 1.7 times higher than the rate of 17.8 among their Arizona-born peers. Interestingly, the rate of suicide deaths among Arizona-born elderly was not only similar to or lower than many of the unadjusted annual rates for Arizonans of all ages between 1987 and 1997 (Table 9), but also similar to or lower than the national suicide rates among elderly 65 years and older* (Table 1).
• During 1996 (the latest year for which the age-specific suicide mortality rates are available by state), the suicide mortality rates among adolescents 15-19 years old ranged from 3.6/100,000 in New Jersey to 28.3/100,000 in Alaska. Arizona adolescents ranked fourth highest in the nation (Figure 9).
• Among persons 65-69 years old in 1996, suicide mortality rates ranged from 4.9/100,000 in New Hampshire to 31.4 in Idaho. Arizona elderly in this age group ranked tenth (Figure 10) among all states.
• Suicide mortality rates ranged from a zero (no fatalities) in Alaska and Wyoming to 53.4 per 100,000 elderly 75- 79 years old in Idaho. Arizona ranked sixth highest (Figure 11) among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. (The suicide mortality rates of Arizona elderly 70-74 years old in 1996 were not among the ten highest in the nation).
• Among elderly 85 years and older in 1996, suicide mortality rates ranged from 5.2/100,000 in Mississippi to 51.1/100,000 in Alaska. Arizona elderly 85+ ranked fifth highest (Figure 12) in the nation.
• In 1996, the age-adjusted suicide mortality rates ranged from 5.7/100,000 in the District of Columbia to 20.5 in Alaska. Arizona ranked seventh highest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in its suicide mortality rate for all ages (Figure 13).
• Gender-specific age-adjusted suicide mortality rates indicate that men are more likely than women to commit suicide (Table 8). The 1997 male suicide rate (27.8/100,000) was 4.6 times greater than the corresponding female rate (6.4/100,000). Approximately 8 out of every ten suicide victims (81.7 percent) in 1997 were males.
• Apache and Navajo counties had the highest suicide death rates among 15-19 year olds in 1997 (Table 12).
• La Paz, Gila, Yavapai and Cochise counties had the highest suicide mortality rates among the elderly 65 and older in 1997 (Table 12).
• The age-adjusted suicide deaths rates varied in Arizona in 1997 from 12.4/100,000 among Cochise County residents, to 29.7 suicides per 100,000 residents of Apache County (Figure 14).
• The average age of Arizonans who died in 1997 from a self-inflicted injury was 43.1 years. Compared to non-Hispanic whites, on average American Indian were 14.7 years younger at the time of suicide death, Hispanics were 14.2 years younger, Asians were 13.2 years younger, while Blacks were 12.3 younger (Table 6). The majority (442 out of 645, or 68.5 percent) of white non-Hispanic suicide victims in 1997 were at least 35 years old. In contrast, only 36.8 percent of suicides among Blacks, 31.4 percent of suicides among Hispanics, and 37.5 percent of suicides among American Indians were at least this old.
• The proportion of suicides which occurred each month in 1997 varied from 5.2 to 10 percent (Table 11). The highest proportions of suicides occurred in May, June and July, while the lowest monthly proportions occurred in February, April and November.