Psychiatric history modifies the gender ratio of suicide: an East and West comparison

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Gender ratios of suicide rates differ greatly across countries. Victoria has a high male:female ratio in suicide that is typical in English-speaking and European countries, while in Hong Kong the low ratio is similar to other SouthEast Asian countries. This study investigates the effect of gender in the psychiatric and non-psychiatric populations to examine how psychiatric history may modulate the effect of gender in these two different communities. METHOD: Review of coronial documentation of all suicide cases in 2000 in Hong Kong and Victoria, Australia. Log-linear model was used to test the gender-psychiatric history-location interaction. RESULTS: Gender difference in suicide wa..