SUICIDE MORTALITY IN THE SOUTHERN REGION OF BRAZIL: AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 700,000 cases of suicide occur annually worldwide, making it the fourth leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29 years (WHO, 2021). According to data released in Epidemiological Bulletin 33, in 2019, the Southern Region presented a mortality rate of 10.41 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while the Southeast, North, and Northeast regions were below the national average of 6.65 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants (Brazil, 2021). [...]understanding how a health issue is spatially distributed in a region allows for comprehension of its spread, and in the case of suicide, enables the identification not only of territories with a health care deficit but also the promotion of actions aimed at preventing and controlling the issue. In the ecological study, the data refers to groups of people based on aggregated information (e.g., rates, coefficients, indices), rather than individuals. [...]the units of analysis are geographical areas (municipalities, states, countries) that carry information to be analyzed and compared over time and space (Merchán-Hamann & Tauil, 2021).