Epidemiology of suicide

Epidemiology means looking at things that happen in big groups of people, so we can learn more about them and try to keep them from happening in the future.

Suicide is when someone chooses to intentionally hurt themselves in a way that causes their own death.

Epidemiology of suicide means learning more about how many people die by suicide, who is at risk of suicide, and what things might make someone more likely to hurt themselves.

Experts who study epidemiology of suicide look at things like age, gender, ethnicity, and geography to see if those things might be related to suicide. They also look at things like mental health problems, stress, trauma, and past suicide attempts to see if those things might be related to suicide.

By understanding more about who is at risk for suicide and why, experts can try to find ways to help prevent suicide from happening. This might mean things like improving mental health care, teaching people how to cope with stress and difficult emotions, and making sure that people with suicidal thoughts have access to support and care when they need it.