The effects of gender on adolescent suicide in ontario, Canada

Identify patterns of suicide amongst male and female adolescents aged 11-18 years in Ontario. All 370 adolescent suicides in Ontario between January 2000 and November 2006 were analyzed. Previous attempts, history of psychiatric treatment, location committed and method of suicide were assessed. Data was analyzed using 2-tailed t-tests and chi-square without Yates' correction. Male adolescent suicide was twice as common as female suicide. Males were more likely to use violent methods (p=0.0352) and females were more likely to have a history of a previous suicide attempt (p=0.0001). While most of the data agree with previous studies in adult populations, the ratio of male to female suicides was much lower in our adolescent population.