IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v65y2007i8p1807-1819.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Have urban/rural inequalities in suicide in New Zealand grown during the period 1980-2001?

Author

Listed:
  • Pearce, Jamie
  • Barnett, Ross
  • Jones, Irfon

Abstract

Previous studies have noted that in many countries there has been a disproportionate increase in suicide in rural areas, contributing to greater urban/rural inequalities in health. This paper evaluates whether this trend was also apparent in New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s, a period of rapid social and economic change. Using suicide incidence data for the period 1980-2001, we investigate whether urban/rural status had an effect upon rates of suicide independently of socioeconomic deprivation. While both male and female suicide rates were significantly higher in urban than rural areas in 1980-1982, by the end of the 1990s, urban/rural differences in suicide rates were not significant. The narrowing of urban/rural differences was, to some extent, a result of the growth in suicide rates in more isolated rural communities and small rural service centres. Recent geographical variations in suicide in New Zealand are therefore to a large extent similar to trends observed elsewhere, but are less marked. Potential explanations are offered for the fluctuating urban/rural inequalities in suicide including compositional arguments, rural restructuring and economic decline, social isolation and health service utilisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Pearce, Jamie & Barnett, Ross & Jones, Irfon, 2007. "Have urban/rural inequalities in suicide in New Zealand grown during the period 1980-2001?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1807-1819, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:8:p:1807-1819
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00315-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hartley, D., 2004. "Rural health disparities, population health, and rural culture," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(10), pages 1675-1678.
    2. Morrell, Stephen & Page, Andrew N. & Taylor, Richard J., 2007. "The decline in Australian young male suicide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 747-754, February.
    3. Agerbo, Esben & Sterne, Jonathan A.C. & Gunnell, David J., 2007. "Combining individual and ecological data to determine compositional and contextual socio-economic risk factors for suicide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 451-461, January.
    4. Cronk, C.E. & Sarvela, P.D., 1997. "Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among rural/small town and urban youth: A secondary analysis of the monitoring the future data set," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(5), pages 760-764.
    5. Verheij, Robert A., 1996. "Explaining urban-rural variations in health: A review of interactions between individual and environment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 923-935, March.
    6. Ostamo, Aini & Lahelma, Eero & Lönnqvist, Jouko, 2001. "Transitions of employment status among suicide attempters during a severe economic recession," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(11), pages 1741-1750, June.
    7. Morrell, Stephen & Taylor, Richard & Slaytor, Emma & Ford, Paul, 1999. "Urban and rural suicide differentials in migrants and the Australian-born, New South Wales, Australia 1985-1994," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 81-91, July.
    8. Middleton, Nicos & Gunnell, David & Frankel, Stephen & Whitley, Elise & Dorling, Daniel, 2003. "Urban-rural differences in suicide trends in young adults: England and Wales, 1981-1998," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 1183-1194, October.
    9. Levin, Kate A. & Leyland, Alastair H., 2005. "Urban/rural inequalities in suicide in Scotland, 1981-1999," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2877-2890, June.
    10. Senior, Martyn & Williams, Huw & Higgs, Gary, 2000. "Urban-rural mortality differentials: controlling for material deprivation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 289-305, July.
    11. Grann, Victor & Troxel, Andrea B. & Zojwalla, Naseem & Hershman, Dawn & Glied, Sherry A. & Jacobson, Judith S., 2006. "Regional and racial disparities in breast cancer-specific mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 337-347, January.
    12. Bentham, Graham, 1988. "Migration and morbidity: Implications for geographical studies of disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 49-54, January.
    13. Barnett, Ross & Pearce, Jamie & Moon, Graham, 2005. "Does social inequality matter? Changing ethnic socio-economic disparities and Maori smoking in New Zealand, 1981-1996," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(7), pages 1515-1526, April.
    14. Ross Barnett, J. & Pearce, Jamie & Howes, Pamela, 2006. "'Help, educate, encourage?': Geographical variations in the provision and utilisation of diabetes education in New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(5), pages 1328-1343, September.
    15. Pearce, Jamie & Boyle, Paul, 2005. "Is the urban excess in lung cancer in Scotland explained by patterns of smoking?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2833-2843, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Judith Casant & Marco Helbich, 2022. "Inequalities of Suicide Mortality across Urban and Rural Areas: A Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Riva, Mylene & Curtis, Sarah & Gauvin, Lise & Fagg, James, 2009. "Unravelling the extent of inequalities in health across urban and rural areas: Evidence from a national sample in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 654-663, February.
    3. Samara McPhedran & Diego De Leo, 2013. "Suicide Among Miners in Queensland, Australia," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(4), pages 21582440135, November.
    4. Ferdi Botha, 2012. "The Economics Of Suicide In South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 80(4), pages 526-552, December.
    5. Cheung, Yee Tak Derek & Spittal, Matthew J. & Pirkis, Jane & Yip, Paul Siu Fai, 2012. "Spatial analysis of suicide mortality in Australia: Investigation of metropolitan-rural-remote differentials of suicide risk across states/territories," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1460-1468.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hempstead, Katherine, 2006. "The geography of self-injury: Spatial patterns in attempted and completed suicide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 3186-3196, June.
    2. Gartner, Andrea & Farewell, Daniel & Roach, Paul & Dunstan, Frank, 2011. "Rural/urban mortality differences in England and Wales and the effect of deprivation adjustment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(10), pages 1685-1694, May.
    3. Page, Andrew & Morrell, Stephen & Taylor, Richard & Dudley, Michael & Carter, Greg, 2007. "Further increases in rural suicide in young Australian adults: Secular trends, 1979-2003," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 442-453, August.
    4. Barnett, Ross & Pearce, Jamie & Moon, Graham, 2009. "Community inequality and smoking cessation in New Zealand, 1981-2006," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 876-884, March.
    5. Riva, Mylène & Curtis, Sarah & Norman, Paul, 2011. "Residential mobility within England and urban–rural inequalities in mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(12), pages 1698-1706.
    6. Allan, Rebecca & Williamson, Paul & Kulu, Hill, 2019. "Gendered mortality differentials over the rural-urban continuum: The analysis of census linked longitudinal data from England and Wales," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 68-78.
    7. van Hooijdonk, Carolien & Droomers, Mariël & van Loon, Jeanne A.M. & van der Lucht, Fons & Kunst, Anton E., 2007. "Exceptions to the rule: Healthy deprived areas and unhealthy wealthy areas," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 1326-1342, March.
    8. Camilla Haw & Keith Hawton & David Gunnell & Stephen Platt, 2015. "Economic recession and suicidal behaviour: Possible mechanisms and ameliorating factors," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(1), pages 73-81, February.
    9. Cheung, Yee Tak Derek & Spittal, Matthew J. & Pirkis, Jane & Yip, Paul Siu Fai, 2012. "Spatial analysis of suicide mortality in Australia: Investigation of metropolitan-rural-remote differentials of suicide risk across states/territories," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1460-1468.
    10. Riva, Mylene & Curtis, Sarah & Gauvin, Lise & Fagg, James, 2009. "Unravelling the extent of inequalities in health across urban and rural areas: Evidence from a national sample in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 654-663, February.
    11. Thomas Maag, 2008. "Economic Correlates of Suicide Rates in OECD Countries," KOF Working papers 08-207, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    12. Harriss, Louise & Hawton, Keith, 2011. "Deliberate self-harm in rural and urban regions: A comparative study of prevalence and patient characteristics," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 274-281, July.
    13. Markowitz, Sara & Cuellar, Alison, 2007. "Antidepressants and youth: Healing or harmful?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 2138-2151, May.
    14. Darlington-Pollock, Frances & Norman, Paul & Lee, Arier C. & Grey, Corina & Mehta, Suneela & Exeter, Daniel J., 2016. "To move or not to move? Exploring the relationship between residential mobility, risk of cardiovascular disease and ethnicity in New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 128-140.
    15. Chen, Fanglin & Hao, Xinyue & Chen, Zhongfei, 2021. "Can high-speed rail improve health and alleviate health inequality? Evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 266-279.
    16. Antonio Rodríguez & Sunny Collings & Ping Qin, 2008. "Socio-economic differences in suicide risk vary by sex : A population-based case-control study of 18-65 year olds in Denmark," Development Research Working Paper Series 05/2008, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    17. Bednarik, Zuzana, 2023. "The impact of health disparities on the subjective well-being in rural communities," NCR-Stat Discussion Papers 339129, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD).
    18. Matthew Jay Lyons & Senaida Fernandez Poole & Ross C. Brownson & Rodney Lyn, 2022. "Place Is Power: Investing in Communities as a Systemic Leverage Point to Reduce Breast Cancer Disparities by Race," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-13, January.
    19. Payal Hathi & Sabrina Haque & Lovey Pant & Diane Coffey & Dean Spears, 2017. "Place and Child Health: The Interaction of Population Density and Sanitation in Developing Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(1), pages 337-360, February.
    20. Wilma L Zijlema & Bart Klijs & Ronald P Stolk & Judith G M Rosmalen, 2015. "(Un)Healthy in the City: Respiratory, Cardiometabolic and Mental Health Associated with Urbanity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:8:p:1807-1819. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.