Study Finds Suffocation Tops Suicides Among Pre-Teens
by Jim Brown
June 16, 2004
(AgapePress) - A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that hanging has overtaken firearms as the chief method of suicide in kids 10 to 14 years old.Because the study -- the first of its kind -- is based on data from death certificates, health officials do not know why deaths by suffocation have risen. They are not sure whether the deaths happened with common items around the home -- such as belts, plastics bags, or ropes -- or if gun-safety measures, such as trigger locks or gun lock boxes, have reduced kids access to guns.
Dr. Alex Crosby, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC's Violence Prevention Division, comments on the findings. "By the late 90s and early 2000s, firearms had dropped down to second," he says, "whereas suffocations had become the leading method and actually had become two times more common than firearm-related suicides."
Crosby says the shift needs more study. "This change seemed to be consistent over this entire age group," Crosby says. "So we need to take a little more of a look at what's going on in ... the 'culture' of children and adolescents that is causing these shifts."
In 1992, there were 96 suicides by suffocation among children 10 to 14 years old. That rose from 163 deaths in 2001. Firearm suicides dropped from 172 to 90 yearly during the same period.
