Suicide Risk May Vary By Occupation

The AP (6/30, Stobbe) reports, “Farmers, lumberjacks and fishermen have the highest suicide rate in the US, while librarians and educators have the lowest,” the findings of a CDC report published July 1 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report suggest. Investigators “found the highest suicide rates in manual laborers who work in isolation and face unsteady employment,” but “high rates were also seen in carpenters, miners, electricians and people who work in construction.” Dentists, physicians, and “other health care professionals had an 80 percent lower suicide rate than the farmers, fishermen and lumberjacks.”

STAT (6/30, Seervai) reports that “men were far more likely to take their own lives than women,” the paper found. Report lead author and health scientist Wendy LiKam Wa McIntosh, of the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, “said she hopes the report’s findings will help employers design strategies to prevent suicide – including wellness and education programs – and encourage people showing signs of distress to seek help.”

Related Links:

— “Professions at highest risk of suicide: Farming, fishing, construction work,” SHANOOR SEERVAI, StatNews, June 30, 2016.

Posted in In The News.