magnitude and indicators

Surveillance is the collection of data over a time period that is analyzed to assess the problem. For suicide, surveillance is used to show how much deaths there are within the year. This data can be collected from death reports and hospital records for suicide attempts. Many of the data are organized into age groups and gender. Suicide rates can be seen through years, and some years are higher than others, indicating there is something wrong. Especially if the number of suicide rates is increasing, there is a large problem.

Statistics show suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students. In the 1970s to 1980s, the suicide rate for the youth increased by forty percent. This was 8.8 deaths per 100,000 in 1970s to 12.3/100,000 in 1980. During this time period, suicide from firearm also increased. Young white male adults had the highest rate of suicide and the rate of male to female was 5 to 1. This surveillance of youth suicide rates is from the CDC.

In another study from CDC, from the years 1994 to 2004, suicide was the third leading cause of death for the youth ages 10 to 24 in the United States. There was 4,599 deaths in 2004. The trend drops a bit during 1994 to 2004, but from 2003 to 2004 there is a sudden increase. For females aged 10 to 14 by 75%, 32% for females 15 to 19, and by 9% for males from 15 to 19. This data was collected from WISQARS.

For direct indicators, there would be a sudden increase of suicide for the youth to show there is a problem. The number of suicide rising would indicate there is a problem and something needs to be fixed. Even if the number is not rising, but is continually high, action needs to be taken. Another direct indicator would be if there is an increase in people receiving counseling. Also, if people are being hospitalized from suicide attempts, that would be an indicator.

For indirect indicators, a rise in sell of depressant medicine can show higher number of people are more likely to commit suicide. The most common method of suicide is firearms or poisoning, so if the sells of these products increase, that would be an indirect indicator. Another is if suicide is in the media a lot. People are more likely to be influenced by it, and think about committing suicide.

I think the data showing the deaths per 100,000 is a strong data as it is easier to understand for many people. It has the incidence rate and the population affected. Just saying there were 4599 deaths doesn't have an affect because the denominator is not known. The data that is detailed is more effective.

sources used:

http://www.spanusa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=0D213AD4-C50A-1085-4DD96CE0EEED52A0

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00000871.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5635a2.htm#tab

problem definition

Studies from 2001 have shown the third leading cause of death for youth aged 15-24 is suicide in the United States. This statistic is from suicide.org. The population defined is young people ranging from teenagers to young adults. The place is America and the time frame is from around 2001. I chose this topic as the third leading cause of death is a very high number and it is something that is highly preventable. The population chosen I believe is important because it is a prime time of growth for many people and highly affects the society. The age group is around college students and the working population. They are the future of society so if suicide affects this age group, it shows there is something wrong. Also, this age group should be the healthiest as they have most likely become independent recently and at their prime time of age. Suicide is usually correlated with depression and substance abuse, so if there is a high number of suicide rate within the population, it shows the risk factors are high in society, which even if it does not lead to suicide, can harm society greatly. There are many problem factors contributing to suicide. Biological problems include family history of mental illness or history of suicide. Environmental factors include situations of being exposed to another suicide or negative feelings. Cultural can have stress as a strong risk factor for suicide where one may be pressured a lot. Political can include the economy going through a rough time, which shows a higher rate of incidence. Another risk factor is lots of violence surrounding the person. All these negative causes can destroy a society and a person’s life. Statistics from NIH.gov show there are 20.2 deaths from suicide per 100,000 in the population in ages 15-24. Men are four times more likely to die from suicide than women and the most common method of suicide is firearm, suffocation, and poisoning. I picked the time frame because it is a recent time frame and shows how our society is currently functioning. From rates posted from 1950 to 2003, suicide rates have more than doubled. This is shown from suicide.org. This could be due to incorrect collection of data from earlier years and most likely a huge population growth, but suicide is still a problem in the states. The place chosen is America because it is home and there seems to be more pressure in the youth. Suicide is highly preventable and rates can hopefully go down with much effort soon.

Final Paper topic

For the final paper, I would like to discuss about suicide prevention. I believe it is important

as not many people talk about it yet it is in the top 20 leading causes of death for Americans. Many people look down on suicide especially with some religious beliefs and choose to ignore it rather than to face it. Suicide is when one person end his or her life and there are many factors to it including from thinking about it to planning it. Suicide is an injury that can be prevented with the right steps.

I believe preventing suicide is important, as not only is the person affected, but the people around are affected even more. Families are devastated at losses and the economy is affected at an average of 33 billion dollars loss from self harm. Preventing suicide is a bit hard because people do not speak up on it and can be unexpected many times. Yet there are risk factors that contribute to suicide that can be seen and prevented. Such are depression, easy access to tools that help people commit suicide, and alcohol and substance abuse. Suicide can range from adolescents to seniors so it affects a wide range of ages. Ways to prevent suicide can be intense therapy, access to better medical care, and support from family and friends. Society can also greatly affect the person's will commit suicide. Not only is suicide prevalent in America, but it also occurs very frequently in other countries as well. There is an estimation that every forty seconds, someone dies of suicide in the world.

Suicide prevention is important to me because a close family friend recently committed suicide. The person was like a brother to my dad and had a loving family that included a daughter around my age. He had been depressed for awhile because of the bad economy but it was a shock to hear the news. From this, I personally experienced how much a suicide can affect the people around the person. Sometimes it's hard to accept suicide but people need to be more educated about it in order to create an environment where people do not seek suicide as the answer. This is why I would like to write about suicide prevention as my topic for the final paper.

From the first half of the class, I have learned much about public health and how it works. There are so many different areas of public health that all relate to one goal which is to make society healthier and more livable. Before the class, I barely knew anything about the American health system and all the organizations that go into making Public Health work. I also did not know the top ten health achievements of Public Health. These achievements are vital and a part of our everyday lives yet not many people realize it. I think we take these contributions from Public Health for granted, we don't realize how important public health is in our life. As we learned in class, people focus on medical care more than public health because medicine is visible but public health is more abstract. But hopefully with the new health care reform, there will be more focus on public health and many more people will realize the importance of it.

I thought the lecture on injury prevention was very interesting because accidents, or unintentional injuries, were shown in a different light. It required you to think outside of the box and see the whole picture. It was true that education alone was not enough to stop majority of people to have safer behavior, but rather the social environment around the person needed to be changed. This is true in many other areas of Public Health as well. For example in lowering obesity rates, rather than telling someone to eat healthier, changing the foods available would work better. Another interesting area was public health and the law. It was interesting to see how gun companies used propaganda to sell their products. It showed how

many commercials give false information to sell. In order to stop these, public health makes sure people are not given false information in ads.

It was surprising to see the numbers of how many people are unhealthy in the US. Especially with obesity, many americans are overweight. This leads to the first and second causes of death in America. It was also shocking to see how much money is spent on healthcare every year. Compared to other countries, the US's health does not compare well, yet America spends the most money. It was also surprising to see how unintentional injuries hurt or kill a lot of people because people don't give much attention to accidents. Probably because people have been desensitized to accidents, not much thought is given to it. But in reality, many of these "accidents" can be prevented and potentially save a lot of lives. A lot of things that I did not give much thought to before because I thought it was normal actually turned out to be a bigger problem and something that could be changed for the better.

Looking back on my first blog, not much has changed but I am far more educated in how public health runs and affects our everyday lives. Now I see health is not just about medical care but actually encompasses a lot more. Now I am more interested in people's health towards their behavior and the environment more than the infectious diseases affecting people. I think preventive care is more important and beneficial than curing a sickness. I have learned a lot from this class so far and it has changed the way I see health care a lot.