WHO Report: Suicide Now Global Leading Cause Of Death In Older Adolescent Girls

The NPR (6/2, Brink) “Goats and Soda” blog reports that the World Health Organization’s report called Health for the World’s Adolescents: A Second Chance in the Second Decade reveals that “the number one cause of death around the world for older teen girls had shifted from maternal mortality to ‘self-harm,’” that is, suicide. These statistics on suicide are driven “by extraordinarily high rates in Southeast Asia, a WHO-designated region that includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.” In these countries, “the rate of death by suicide is 27.92 per every 100,000 females between 15 and 19, more than twice the global rate in that group.”

Related Links:

— “The Truth Behind The Suicide Statistic For Older Teen Girls,” Susan Brink, National Public Radio, June 2, 2015.

Posted in In The News.