Suicide among adolescents in Italy: a nationwide cohort study of the role of family characteristics

Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents and is recognized as a serious public health problem. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between family characteristics and the risk of suicide among adolescents in Italy using nationwide official data. We carried out a cohort study based on the record linkage between the 15th Italian Population Census, the Italian Population Register, and the National Register of Causes of Death. Suicides in adolescents aged 10–19 years from 2012 to 2016 were analyzed. Hazard ratios of mortality from suicide were estimated through a multivariable Cox regression model using time-on-study as the time scale. We included 8,284,359 children and adolescents (51% males, 49% females). Over the 5-year follow-up, we registered 330 deaths from suicides (74% males), mostly occurred in the age class 15–19 years (86%). The suicide rate was 1.71 per 100,000 person-years among males and 0.65 among females. We found some familial characteristics associated with a higher risk of dying by suicide, including: living in single-parent or reconstructed families (among boys), a 40-year or more age gap between mother and child (among girls), having highly educated parents, an age difference between parents greater than 5 years. Furthermore, the study showed a lower risk for boys living in urban areas and for both boys and girls living in South Italy. Our results could help in identifying adolescents at high risk of suicide who could benefit from the planning of targeted intervention strategies.