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Pollock NJ, Liu L, Wilson MM, Reccord C, Power ND, Mulay S, Karaivanov Y, Tonmyr L. Suicide in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada: a time trend analysis from 1981 to 2018. BMC Public Health 2021; 21:1291. [PMID: 34215242 PMCID: PMC8252247 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-11293-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2021] [Accepted: 06/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The suicide rate in Canada decreased by 24% during the past four decades. However, rates vary between provinces and territories, and not all jurisdictions experienced the same changes. This study examined suicide rates over time in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. METHODS We used cross-sectional surveillance data from the Canadian Vital Statistics Death Database to examine suicide rates in Newfoundland and Labrador from 1981 to 2018. We calculated annual age-standardized suicide mortality rates and used joinpoint regression to estimate the average annual percent change (AAPC) in suicide rates overall and by sex, age group, and means of suicide. RESULTS From 1981 to 2018, 1759 deaths by suicide were recorded among people in Newfoundland and Labrador. The age-standardized suicide mortality rate increased more than threefold over the study period, from 4.6 to 15.4 deaths per 100,000. The suicide rate was higher among males than females, and accounted for 83.1% of suicide deaths (n = 1462); the male-to-female ratio of suicide deaths was 4.9 to 1. The average annual percent change in suicide rates was higher among females than males (6.3% versus 2.0%). Age-specific suicide rates increased significantly for all age groups, except seniors (aged 65 or older); the largest increase was among youth aged 10 to 24 years old (AAPC 3.5; 95% CI, 1.6 to 5.5). The predominant means of suicide was hanging/strangulation/suffocation, which accounted for 43.8% of all deaths by suicide. CONCLUSIONS The suicide rate in Newfoundland and Labrador increased steadily between 1981 and 2018, which was in contrast to the national rate decline. The disparity between the provincial and national suicide rates and the variations by sex and age underscore the need for a public health approach to prevention that accounts for geographic and demographic differences in the epidemiology of suicide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathaniel J Pollock
- School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies, Labrador Institute, Memorial University, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. .,Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. .,Discipline of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
| | - Li Liu
- Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Margo M Wilson
- Discipline of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
| | - Charlene Reccord
- Department of Research and Innovation, Eastern Health, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
| | - Nicole D Power
- Department of Research and Innovation, Eastern Health, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
| | - Shree Mulay
- Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
| | - Yordan Karaivanov
- Medical Services, Labrador Health Centre, Labrador-Grenfell Health, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.,Northern Family Medicine, Discipline of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
| | - Lil Tonmyr
- Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Gillis D, Edwards BPM. The utility of joinpoint regression for estimating population parameters given changes in population structure. Heliyon 2019; 5:e02515. [PMID: 31768426 PMCID: PMC6872810 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2018] [Revised: 06/06/2019] [Accepted: 09/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The method of joinpoint regression has been used in numerous domains to assess changes in time series data, including such things as cancer mortality rates, motor vehicle collision mortalities, and disease risk. To help improve estimation of population parameters for use in ecological risk assessment and management, we present a simulation and analysis to describe the utility of this method for the ecological domain. We demonstrate how joinpoint regression can accurately identify if the population structure changes based on time series of abundance, as well as identify when this change occurs. In addition, we compare and contrast population parameter estimates derived through joinpoint and surplus production methods to those derived from standard surplus production methods alone. When considering a change point at 32 years (out of a 64 year simulation), the joinpoint regression model was able, on average, to estimate a joinpoint time of 32.31 years with a variance of 6.82 and 95% confidence interval for the mean relative bias of (0.0085, 0.0112). The model was able to consistently estimate population parameters, with variance of these estimations decreasing as the change in these population parameters increased. We conclude that joinpoint regression be added to the list of methods employed by those who assess ecological risk to allow for a more accurate and complete understanding of population dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Gillis
- University of Guelph, School of Computer Science, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON N1G2W1 Canada
| | - Brandon P M Edwards
- University of Guelph, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON N1G2W1 Canada
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Kenny C, Liboiron M, Wylie SA. Seeing power with a flashlight: DIY thermal sensing technology in the classroom. SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE 2019; 49:3-28. [PMID: 30648468 DOI: 10.1177/0306312718823282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
This paper contributes to the growing literature on 'making and doing' in Science and Technology Studies (STS) by describing and theorizing the teaching of making and doing. We describe a collaborative do-it-yourself (DIY) technology project taught simultaneously in Canada and the United States, in sociology and public health, to undergraduates with no prior electronics experience. Students built thermal flashlights - low cost digital tools for making thermal images - and employed them to research their surrounding environments. By making and using the thermal flashlights, learners investigated power in two senses: identifying social power relationships embedded within normally unquestioned infrastructures, and exploring these infrastructures' connection to industrial forms of power, such as heat and electricity. Students and instructors came to understand how the control of power, light and temperature is vital to human-made infrastructure and environmental health threats that characterize the 21st century. Through this project, students went from being passive consumers of such power to become active investigators of their socio-technical systems by producing unique knowledge that enabled them to imagine how they might make and inhabit their environments differently. Breaking down the distinction between teaching and research, this article explores the promise of 'making and doing' in university courses to create new collaborative research platforms that could spread laterally and scale to transform social and technical infrastructures.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Max Liboiron
- Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada
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Jackson LA, Unruh A, Donahue M. Living in a Rural Community Is Good for Your Health … Or Is It? Young Women Talk About Rural Living and Their Emotional and Mental Health. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2011. [DOI: 10.7870/cjcmh-2011-0004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Jackson LA, Tirone S, Donovan C, Hood R. Community Restructuring and the Emotional and Social Health of Youth: A Study of a Small Coastal Community in Newfoundland, Canada. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2007. [DOI: 10.7870/cjcmh-2007-0029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Lois A. Jackson
- School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
| | - Susan Tirone
- School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
| | - Catherine Donovan
- Community Health and Humanities, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador
| | - Rob Hood
- Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia
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