Youth Suicide During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To identify potential differential changes in youth suicide deaths associated with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to better inform suicide prevention strategies. METHODS This cross-sectional study analyzed national suicide data for US youth aged 5 to 24 years from 2015 to 2020. Annual and monthly numbers of suicides were extracted overall and by sex, age, race and ethnicity, and method. Expected suicides were modeled from the trend in monthly deaths before COVID-19 (January 1, 2015–February 29, 2020), by using interrupted time-series analyses with quasi-Poisson regression. Rate ratios (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to compare expected and observed suicides during the first 10 months of COVID-19 (March 1, 2020–December 31, 2020). RESULTS Among 5568 identified youth suicides during the 2020 pandemic, 4408 (79.2%) were male, 1009 (18.1%) Hispanic, 170 (3.3%) non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native, 262 (4.7%) Asian/Pacific Islander, 801 (14.4%) Black, and 3321 (59.6%) white. There was a significant increase in overall observed versus expected youth suicides during the COVID-19 pandemic (RR = 1.04, 95% CI = 1.01–1.07), equivalent to an estimated 212 excess deaths. Demographic subgroups including males (RR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.02–1.08), youth aged 5 to 12 years (RR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.03–1.41) and 18 to 24 years (RR =1.05, 95% CI = 1.02–1.08), non-Hispanic AI/AN youth (RR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.03–1.39), Black youth (RR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.12–1.29), and youth who died by firearms (RR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.10–1.19) experienced significantly more suicides than expected. CONCLUSIONS Suicide deaths among US youth increased during COVID-19, with substantial variation by sex, age, race and ethnicity, and suicide method. Suicide prevention strategies must be tailored to better address disparities in youth suicide risk.