Characteristics of immigrant suicide completers in a sample of suicide victims from Greece

Abstract

Background: Immigrants have higher rates of suicidal behaviour in comparison to the indigenous population. Aims: To describe the characteristics of foreign nationality suicide completers and search for differences between them and native Greeks. This is the first study focused on immigrant suicide victims in Greece. Methods: Data were collected for all recorded cases of completed suicide for the two-year period November 2007 to October 2009 at the Athens Department of Forensic Medicine, the largest, by far, of its kind in Greece covering approximately 35% of the country’s population. The material was collected using the method of psychological autopsy as well as from the victims’ forensic records. Results: Nearly 10% of Greece’s 11 million population are of foreign nationality. Approximately half of them live in Athens and its suburbs, an area where 35% of Greece’s population lives. In our sample, 15.8% of the suicide victims were of foreign nationality (53 cases): 41 men (77.4%) and 12 women (22.6%). Higher suicide rates were found for citizens of Kuwaiti (9.1%), Somali (6.7%) and Afghan (0.9%) nationality (immigrant communities with very few members); the lower suicide rates were for individuals of Egyptian (0.01%), Ukrainian (0.01%) and Albanian (0.006%) nationality (the Albanian immigrant community is the largest in Greece). In comparison to their Greek counterparts, immigrant victims were younger (mean age 38.7 vs 54.9 years, p < .001) more often unemployed ( p = .007) and with a history of alcohol abuse ( p < .001). The main suicide method used by immigrants was hanging ( p < .001) while for Greeks it was jumping from a height. Conclusions: Individuals who belong to small national communities seem to have the highest risk of dying by suicide. Immigrant suicide victims differ from the indigenous population in several parameters. Our data could help define the most vulnerable of them and apply more effective suicide prevention strategies.