Suicide in Costa Rica: Autopsy analysis performed in the Department of Legal Medicine from 2010 to 2016
Keywords:
Suicide, Costa Rica, epidemiology, conduct.Abstract
Suicide is a major public health problem. The present investigation corresponds to a descriptive statistical analysis of the sociodemographic aspects of the people who died in a suicidal way in Costa Rica from 2010 to 2016. The cases were taken from the Forensic Pathology Automation System of the Department of Legal Medicine. A grouping of data is made according to place of occurrence, age, cause of death and occupation. Descriptive statistics are carried out, cross-data analysis are executed and the proportions obtained are analyzed by means of Pearson´s Chi-square test and Z-test with Bonferroni correction.
There were 2174 cases, usually distributed in more than 300 cases per year. Suicide is more frequent in men, between 19 and 44 years of age, single, non-professional and the most common cause of death is asphyxia due to hanging, then intoxication by agrochemicals and finally wounding by firearm projectile.
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