What Are the Real Suicide Rates in Minority Populations?

Despite persisting socioeconomic and health disparities, suicide rates are less than half among non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics than among non-Hispanic whites. Two studies provide new data.

To see whether suicide is underreported in minority populations through the misclassification of deaths as having “undetermined intent,” researchers used a national cross-sectional epidemiological database of 105,946 deaths in subjects age 15 and older in 2003–2005. Overall suicide rates were higher in whites than in blacks or Hispanics. In logistic regression analyses adjusted for demographics, odds ratios for potential excess misclassification were 2.57 in blacks and 1.17 in Hispanics relative to whites. Excess misclassification potential was particul…