Premature Mortality Due to Suicide,Homicide,and Motor Vehicle Accidents in Health Service Delivery Areas: Comparison of Status Indians in British Columbia,Canada,with All other Residents

Abstract

From each of 15 health regions, potential years of life lost (PYLL) before age 75 for Status Indians is compared for select causes of death with all other residents. Mortality data from 1991 to 2001 for rates of PYLL (standardized to the 1991 population) are from tables of the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency and First Nations and Inuit Health Branch in 2002. PYLL rate differences and rate ratios were compared for two groups with significance of the former indicated by the 95% confidence interval. Overall, the rates of PYLL for suicide, homicide, and deaths due to motor vehicle accidents were about 224%, 340%, and 248% higher among Status Indians than all other residents. Rates of PYLL for homicide and deaths from motor vehicle accidents among Status Indian women exceeded those of other residents who were men. For suicide, Status Indian men ranked first and all other male residents of British Columbia ranked second.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allard

Y. E.

Wilkins

Berthelot

(2004) Premature mortality in health regions with high Aboriginal populations. Health Reports, 15(1), 51–60.

British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency and First Nations and Inuit Health Branch. (Annual , 2002) Regional analysis of health statistics for Status Indians in British Columbia, 1991–2001: Birth related and mortality summaries for British Columbia and 16 health service delivery areas. Ottawa: Ministry of Health Planning, Province of British Columbia and Health Canada.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1986a) Premature mortality due to unintentional injuries-United States, 1983. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 35(22), 353–356.

Centers for Desease Control and Prevention. (1986b) Premature mortality in the United States: Public health issues in the use of years of potential life lost. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 35(2S), 1S–11S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1989) Black/white comparisons of premature mortality for public health program planning-District of Columbia. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 38(3), 33–37.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1993) Years of potential life lost before age 65-United States, 1990 and 1991. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 42(13), 251–253.

Cooper

Corrado

Karlberg

A. M.

Adams

L. P.

(1992) Aboriginal suicide in British Columbia. Canada's Mental Health, 40(3), 19–23.

Durkheim

(1951) Suicide: A study in sociology. New York: Free Press. (Original 1897)

Kirmayer

L. J.

(1994) Suicide among Canadian aboriginal peoples. Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review, 31, 3–58.

10.

Lester

(1987) Social deviancy and suicidal behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 127, 339–340.

11.

Lester

(1989) Suicide from a sociological perspective. Springfield, IL: Thomas.

12.

Lester

(1991) The etiology of suicide and homicide in urban and rural America. Journal of Rural Community Psychology, 12(1), 15–27.

13.

Lester

(1995) Suicide rates in Canadian aboriginals and size of population. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 81, 1282.

14.

Lester

(1997) Suicide in American Indians. Huntington, NY: Nova Science.

15.

Lester

(2001) Suicide in American Indians. Huntington, NY: Nova Science.

16.

Romeder

J. M.

McWhinnie

J. R.

(1977) Potential years of life lost between ages 1 and 70: An indicator of premature mortality for health planning. International Journal of Epidemiology, 6, 143–151.

17.

Schenker

Gentleman

J. F.

(2001) On judging the significance of differences by examining the overlap between confidence intervals. The American Statistician, 55, 182–186.

18.

Ward

J. A.

Fox

Evans

A. L.

(1978) Suicide and the Canadian Indians. In Aalberg

(Ed.), Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of the International Association for Suicide Prevention. Helsinki, Finland: Finnish Association for Mental Health. Pp. 389–401.

19.

Wechsler

Pugh

T. F.

(1967) Fit of individual and community characteristics and rates of psychiatric hospitalization. The American Journal of Sociology, 73, 331–338.