Comparison of suicide status in Iran with Middle East and North Africa Countries (MENA) from 1990 to 2017

Background: Suicide is proposed as an important and growing issue in public health,which has left out more than 47000 deaths, or one death per 11 minutes in 2017. Between1960 and 2012, suicide rates rose by 60 percent, with nearly 75 percent of cases occurringin developing countries. The aim of this study is to compare suicide load in the MiddleEast and North Africa (MENA) countries in order to pave the way for correct health policymaking.Material and Methods: The study population included all 21 MENA countries withnearly 400 million people. The data of Global Burden of Diseases in 2017 that estimatedeath rate for 264 causes in terms of location, age and sex for 195 countries and regionswas used. The GBD considers suicide according to definition of the ninth and tentheditions of the international classification of diseases as death due to poisoning orintentional self-injury. All suicide- related analyzes were evaluated using these indicatorsin excel 2016.Results: The highest percentage of total suicide DALY attributable to risk factors ofAlcohol and drug use are related to United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan countries,respectively. Iran is the sole country without suicide DALY attributable to alcoholconsumption risk factor. Moroccan women and Libya, Afghanistan and Yemen men havethe highest DALY rates in terms of ASR in the region, respectively. Suicide incidencehave an increasing trend until the age group of 20-24 and then a decreasing trend. Thistrend is on the rise again since the age of 65.Conclusions: The necessity to improve social, cultural and economic factors along witheffective measures on suicide prevention especially among low and middle incomecountries, performing more studies and precise registration of the cases especially in theareas that suicide is considered social stigma and crime should be considered as highagenda in national and regional strategies.

کلیدواژه ها:

Suicide ، Iran ، MENA ، DALY