Disparity in official suicide reporting

Appointed medical examiners and coroners are less likely than elected coroners to under report suicides, U.S. researchers found. Lead author Joshua Klugman of Temple University in Philadelphia says many view suicide as an intensely private and personal act and commonly seek to explain it by focusing on the mental and emotional health of the individual. However, because suicides tend to cluster in specific populations and places, sociologists are very interested in how social contexts can affect a person's propensity to commit suicide. "Mortality statistics are crucial because they tell us not just about how people die, but how they lived," Klugman said in a statement. "To understand the social determinants of health and well-being at the community level, we need to be confident that area-level mortality statistics are relatively unbiased." Klugman and colleagues Gretchen Condran and Matt Wray, both at Temple, found that elected coroners have slightly lower official suicide rates than medical examiners -- all of whom are appointed -- and appointed coroners. "Contrary to arguments that medical examiners' greater scientific training makes them more likely to under report suicides, we conclude that medical examiners and appointed coroners demonstrate less suicide under reporting due to their insulation from public pressure," Klugman says. Copyright 2011 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.