Suicide Research & Data Analysis Flashcards

What is the primary reason suicide rates in the United States are considered underestimates?

Answer: Stigma leads to misclassification of suicides as accidents or undetermined deaths

Social stigma and insurance exclusions motivate families and coroners to classify ambiguous deaths as accidents or undetermined, resulting in systematic undercounting of suicides.

The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) categorizes suicidal ideation on which primary dimension?

Answer: Intensity and behavior ranging from passive wish to die through active ideation with intent and plan

The C-SSRS rates both ideation (from passive to active with plan/intent) and behavior (from preparatory acts to attempts), creating a severity hierarchy.

Which research finding best characterizes the relationship between means restriction and suicide rates?

Answer: Restricting access to one method consistently reduces overall suicide rates due to incomplete substitution

Evidence from multiple countries shows that means restriction (e.g., coal gas detoxification in the UK, bridge barriers) reduces total suicide rates, indicating incomplete substitution.

In survival analysis applied to suicide research, what does the 'hazard rate' represent?

Answer: The instantaneous risk of a suicide event occurring at a specific time, given survival to that point

The hazard rate (or hazard function) expresses the instantaneous probability of the event occurring at time t, conditional on having survived up to that time.

What does Durkheim's concept of 'anomic suicide' specifically refer to in his sociological theory?

Answer: Suicide resulting from disruption of social regulation during periods of rapid societal change

Anomic suicide occurs when societal norms break down (e.g., during economic crashes or rapid social change), leaving individuals without clear behavioral guidelines.

Which statistical method is most appropriate for analyzing whether a binary variable (suicide attempt: yes/no) is predicted by multiple continuous risk factors simultaneously?

Answer: Binary logistic regression

Binary logistic regression models the log-odds of a dichotomous outcome as a linear combination of multiple predictor variables, making it the standard approach for this scenario.

What is 'ecological fallacy' and why is it relevant to population-level suicide research?

Answer: Incorrectly inferring individual-level relationships from group-level aggregate data

Ecological fallacy occurs when group-level correlations (e.g., regions with high unemployment have high suicide rates) are wrongly attributed to individuals (e.g., unemployed individuals die by suicide).