Time trend analysis of all paediatric suicides in Sweden 1980–2023: Call for awareness and action

Background

Current literature on Swedish child suicides relies on data from 2000 and onwards, at most. Presenting four decades of data, this paper aims to advance our understanding of youth suicide patterns. Focusing on the paediatric population, suicide statistics for age groups 10–17 and 10–14 were analysed for time trends.

Methods

Data extracted from the Swedish cause-of-death register covered 44 years (1980–2023). Vital records included n = 878 suicides in ages 10–17 and n = 205 in ages 10–14. Sensitivity analyses additionally included n = 152 and n = 42 deaths of undetermined intent for each group. Time-series analyses of national suicide rates, stratified by sex, were data-driven and conducted using joinpoint software, estimating Annual Percentage Changes (APC%) and linear splines.

Results

Male rates remained stable during the entire period ( P > 0.163), while female suicides increased linearly ( P < 0.0001), without joinpoints. The annually increasing female rate was lower in age group 10–17 (APC = 2.33%; CI: 1.35 to 3.31) compared to 10–14 (APC = 4.55%; CI: 3.61 to 6.32). During the first ten years of observation, the male-to-female suicide ratio was 1.9 and 3.4 for the respective groups (10– 17 vs. 10–14). These ratios diminished in the last ten years (1.1 vs 0.8) to become female-dominated in 2023 (0.8 vs 0.9).

Conclusions

Female suicide rates in the two age groups increased linearly by over 2% per year. In 2023, male sex was no longer associated with increased risk. Implications for strategic healthcare initiatives are discussed.

Key messages

1. Research question: What are the long-term (years 1980–2023) suicide time trends in the Swedish paediatric population, age groups 10 – 17 and 10 – 14?

2. Findings: Analysis of n = 878 suicides (49% males) indicated stagnant male suicides, while the female suicides in these two age groups increased linearly and annually by 1.6% and 4.5%, respectively – with no joinpoints identified.

3. Importance: Information should be strategically disseminated to health care specialists about the increasing female suicide rates, in contrast to stagnant male rates.