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Cluster Suicides Among Unemployed Persons in Australia Over the Period 2001–2013

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Abstract

There has been no research on whether particularly vulnerable people such as the unemployed are prone to being in a suicide cluster (defined as an unusually high number of suicides occurring in a defined geographical area and/or over a relatively brief period of time). We investigated the presence of unemployed suicide clusters in Australia over the period 2001–2013 using a Poisson discrete scan statistic approach. Spatial, temporal and spatial/temporal clusters comprised 13.4, 4.4 and 1.7% of all unemployed suicides respectively. These results suggest the importance of targeting preventative efforts in where large numbers of unemployed persons who have died by suicide resided before death.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Australian Rotary Health, Deakin University and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (SRG-1-091-13). We thank Suzanne Mavoa for her suggestions regarding the analytic approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, 207 Bouverie Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Allison Milner

  2. Centre for Population Health Research, School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

    Allison Milner

  3. Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, 207 Bouverie Street, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Lay San Too & Matthew J. Spittal

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  1. Allison Milner
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Correspondence to Allison Milner.

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Milner, A., Too, L.S. & Spittal, M.J. Cluster Suicides Among Unemployed Persons in Australia Over the Period 2001–2013. Soc Indic Res 137, 189–201 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1604-6

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