blog gis work
Joshua Reyna
2023-04-18
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## in your R script or .Rprofile.An Introduction to Suicide in the US
Suicide consistently has been within the top 10 causes of death for years (Centers for Disease Control 2022). While the number of people who actually both try and succeed in ending their lives is relatively small, the number of people who think about suicide (12 million), seriously consider it (3.5 million people), and plan it (1.4 million) are much longer (Centers for Disease Control 2022). As a result, all aspects of suicide, from healthcare services to personal costs, and mortality, resulted in costs of about 70 billion (Centers for Disease Control 2022). As opposed to documenting the risk factors of suicide, the present research will identify where in the US suicide appears to be prevalent. In addition, among which subgroups (race and gender) and where these suicide rates may be more prevalent in the US.
For the present topic, I will be using the Center for Disease Controls Wonder data which includes suicide mortality rates. I am hoping to build a series of maps from this data each including 5-year suicide mortality estimates for the total populations highlighted earlier. With the years selected being from 2000-2020. Separated into 5-year increments. The literature has established a few things regarding suicide that will inform the majority of my research questions. Males tend to have higher rates of suicide not only in the US but in virtually every country in the world (Danielson and Johnson 2005; Player et al 2015; Rasmussen 2017; Richardson et al. 2021). Since 1997 the Centers for Disease Control among others have identified the Western region as having higher amounts of suicide compared to the East (Haws et al. 2009; Barkan et al. 2013; Pepper 2017). In terms of race, Whites are far more likely to make a suicide attempt compared to all other racial groups in the US (Comer 1973; Bush 1976; Davis and Short 1979; Davis 1978; Davis 1980; Early 1992; Gibbs 1994; Leong et al. 2007; Olson et al. 2011; Kral 2013; Silva and Van Orden 2018). I left it to age out as to wanting to just focus on age-adjusted suicide rates. For the most part, I want to see if anything has changed over time, and also, I would like to see what’s going on with the North and the South.
Regional Differences In Suicide
There has been a long-established tradition of identifying regions of the US where suicide rates may be high. The CDC (1997) identified that compared to the eastern region of the US, the Western region has much higher rates, but does not identify why these variations may exist. Pepper (2017) expanding upon this research indicates that perhaps incidences of suicide are greater in those mountainous regions of the West. For Haws et al. (2009) this may be due to oxygen concentration, which may exacerbate the onset of certain illnesses, especially those psychiatric ones. Perhaps the greatest contribution to the Eastern and Western puzzle was produced by Barkan et al. (2013) who used residential stability in their analysis. Residential stability may influence suicide in several ways, first compared to the East people are potentially less likely to remain in one place for quite some time, leading to several different outcomes. Namely, residents in areas where stability is low may not have or develop meaningful relationships with other residents, leading to higher levels of social isolation and in turn higher rates of suicide. This idea of social integration leading to higher rates is rooted in the writings of Durkheim (1897), that too little or too much would influence those rates of suicide. Rather puzzling is the lack of information regarding suicide rates within the Northern and Southern regions of the US.
Blog 2. An overview of suicide mortality data in the US.
Data
Data for the present study comes from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2021) mortality data files provided by vital statistics. The CDC has tracked suicide within the US in a variety of ways including by age, race, sex, and of particular interest to the present study of where. Additionally, as this is mortality data, the suicide-dependent variable is available for each single-digit year from the year 2000-2020. Totals were preferred but age-adjusted rates were instead used, these rates are x amount of suicides per 100,000 individuals in each state. A sample of the data has thus been provided to illustrate the issue of suicide see Tables 1 and 2, and Figures 1-4 for a quick summary of the results in totals. The data indicate that contrary to what the literature shows, suicides appear much more often in the Southern region of the US with the West being second, and Northeastern areas having far lower amounts. Among racial groups interestingly, during the 2006-2010 time period, most racial groups except for Blacks and whites saw much higher increases in the number of suicides. Following this trend, suicide mortality began to rise in all groups during the next decade.
Ideal Methodology
This research is concerned with where and among who suicide rates tend to be concentrated, or the hotspots where large amounts tend to occur. Although a heatmap was the preferred method, it has become evident that state-level maps are not compatible with a point analysis. In this case, a choropleth map will instead be used. Ideally, several maps will be used to illustrate the growing rates of suicide across the US and amongst different racial/gender groups.
Blog 3. Analyzing the Data
As I was using state-level data, I could not use the heatmap as I had initially intended to, so instead 40 choropleth maps were generated. I simply lacked the point data needed to make a heat map, although the choropleth maps seemed quite similar regarding showing me what I wanted to see which different color levels were measuring amounts of suicide in each area. For the present research, there are currently 5 racial categories per gender group resulting in over ten groups in turn resulting in 40 maps across the 20 years from 2000-2020. As for the map data itself, I left the legend as is without any break modifications, my thought process was to show just how large the difference was in the number of suicides within and across each group.
Results
While the results paint a rather intriguing picture regarding suicide across the US, much of why I think this is happening is theoretical at best. Not surprisingly, males tended to have much higher rates (almost 3 to 7 times more depending on which racial group was the focus). Males also tended to be more widespread throughout the US. Similarly, Whites and especially White females had higher rates compared to their racial counterparts.
Figures 5-14 indicate maps for age-adjusted suicide rates from 2001-2005. Male Asian and Pacific Islanders tend to have a large amount of suicides clustered in a variety of states most notably Wisconsin, Colorado, and Utah with other notable states being along coastal regions of the US eg California, Florida, and Washington. With Female Asian and Pacific Islanders alost being quite the opposite of their male counterparts, during these years much less suicides have happened and most notably these happened in the South and Eastern regions of the US, with New York and Nebraska being the most place where these females ended their lives. Alaskan Native and American Indian males tended to have their suicide rates much more in the Northern, Western, and South Western regions of the US North Dakota and surrounding states having much more suicides comparatively. Female Alaskan Native and American Indians conversely are only concentrated within Oklahoma, New Mexico, and much more in Arizona. Male Hispanics and female Hispanics tend to have suicids highly concentrated in New Mexico, but for females Colorado additionally was another area where the rates were pretty high. Male Hispanics also tended to be more dispersed around the country, and at least also have quite similar locations of suicides as Black males, but these rates are lower for Hispanic males. Here Black females tended to have lower rates compared to all other groups with the exception of New Jersey where they alone had the highest rates of suicide. For Black males as previously mentioned, Colorado and Nevada and most of the country suicide rates were pretty high, and most of the North Western area of the US Washington being the exception. Lastly, White males and females suicides commonly could be found in most of the US in high numbers. White males specifically in Nevada and New Mexico, and this was similar for females.
Figures 15-24 indicate the results for the years 2006-2010. Starting with Female and Male Asian and Pacific Islanders it appears that for both groups suicide rates have increased across the US. For males, this growth appears most prevalent in areas such as Nevada, Tennesse, and New Mexico, and again those areas previously mentioned have increased numbers of suicide. For females, Nebraska has largely fallen off, and much less suicides happened in New York, for this group that area still remails relatively high. Minnessota and now Georgia are noticeably higher now compared to the first few years of the 2000. Again, for Male Alaskan Natives, and American Indians North Dakota and surrounding areas where suicides largely occurred. At least in this regard much more suicides happened within the Central, Western, and Northern areas of the US. On the other hand for females these were far more concentrated within South Dakota, Minnesot, Montana, and Washington. Much more suicides for this group happened in a wider variety of states. Male Hispanics greatly increased in suicides across the country and again in New Mexico, but others to note included Montana, and interestingly Wyoming. Female Hispanics again increasing across the US in greater numbers but again in Colorado, New Mexico, and strikingly growing in Utah. For Black males again Colorado, but increasingly across the US, particularly in the Northeastern, and Southern region with Black females having a strikingly large amount of growth compared to the first five years, with Colorado, California, Arizona being the most notable. For White males and Females having similar growth from the first five years but more so throughout the country. For males however, New York and New Jersey and females these areas were relatively low in suicides.
Figures 25-34 depict the suicides from the years 2011-2015. Again, the suicides of Asian and Pacific Islanders have continued to increase over time. Males particularly across the country with notably all areas surrounding coastal regions, and much more so in the central area. For females, again the Colorado area tends to be a hotspot for suicides over time and similarly to males around coastal areas of the US. Alaskan Natives, and American Indians males again have high amounts of suicides with North Dakota visibly having lower this 5-year period, but still relatively high at least in the Western and Central parts of the US. Female Alaskan Natives, and American Indians this pattern of growth largely follows the previous 5 years. Male Hispanics despite having lower amounts of suicides across the country, were actually shown to have happened in more states, contrast this with Black males who had higher amounts of suicides, but appeared in lesser amounts of states. With both groups again having New Mexico, as the place where the most suicides took place. For Black males, again Nevada, Arizona, and Oklahoma having relatively high rates comparatively to other states. Female Hispanics again in New Mexico, and the growth of Colorado is even more apparent during this time period and other areas of the US. For Black females, the area of concentration again appears to be most of the Eastern and Southern regions of the US, with Washington standing out mroeso in the West. For White males again having high rates of Suicide across the US, and it appears that during this time period White females have noticeable lower numbers in the Northern and central areas of the US.
Finally, in figures 35-44 the maps include time periods 2016-2020. For male Asian and Pacific Islanders had much higher rates of suicides across the country with again Nevada, Colorado, and Arkansas being notable standouts. Females on the other hand again also have much higher rates across the country with Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Missouri. Male Alaskan Natives and American Indians on the other hand continue to follow the trend they set in previous years, with again the North Dakota and surrounding areas consistently having high rates, but Idaho, and more of the mid and western regions of the US so too growing in number. . Female Alaskan Natives, and American Indians this pattern of growth largely follows the previous 5 years. Male Hispanics again, following the previous trends have now increased in suicides across more areas compared to their Black male counterparts. For instances, in again New Mexico, Colorado, and weirdly Montana. Female Hispanics on the other hand have higher rates of suicide in Michigan of all places, along with again New Mexico and Colorado. Black male suicides continued to grow across the country with more so appearing in the Western region. Black females these suicides appear to be more common along the East but states such as Nevada, Washington, Arizona, and Kansas having much higher rates of suicide. With White males suicides again being in New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada, and Montana and relatively high across the US, and similarly not so in a few states. Lastly, White Females having more numbers in a variety of states with again Nevada, New Mexico leading those numbers.
Blog 4 Discussion
Overall, I am somewhat pleased with this assignment. Pleased in the sense that, yes, the maps were able to show how suicide rats have been increasing over time, and across the US. I kind of figured that Whites would have much higher rates overall, but I am really thinking about what was going on with groups such as Alaskan Natives, Pacific Islanders, Native Hawaiians, and Asian Americans. I have very little research on Asian Americans, but one thing off the top of my head was that Japanese females were increasing in amount of suicide (Leong et al. 2007). Hispanics also, as they grew in such high rates of suicde across the 20 year period, what also strikes me was despite having lower rates of suicides compared to say African Americans, they were still present in much more states. I think I just got overwhelmed with the sheer number of maps I had to interpret, then interpreting them across years, and I got really flustered leading to the subpar blog three. In the future, it would probably be wise to focus on a singular five-year period as opposed to about four of them. I need to go back and look at the literature but I am relatively certain that 2000-2010 have been well documented enough, that I could probably focus on the latter years than the earlier years. Thinking ahead, maybe also focusing on one group of the variables I used such as using males of specific race groups, or females in that same regard. Giving myself and the reader more of a specific view of suicide in regards to certain populations. I think this project could be strengthened by showing these maps in conjunction with say the literature I have that shows the specific pathways of how suicide impacts different groups.
So, writing this after having redone all of my results section I now see a bigger picture here. Several states for a variety of groups included areas such as Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Mississippi, Washington, which fascinates me. As much of the research I found before writing all this mainly talked about the West. Which would technically cover a few of these areas. Well, according to the Census Bureau (2021) Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Washington are actually part of the Western region. As such, the literature I highlighted earlier indicated these areas also are where there tends to be high amounts of residential instability, or areas where people are easily isolated leading to higher rates of suicide Barkan et al. (2013). Not really sure as to why this affected some groups but not others, my best guess is possibly due to lower amount of racialized minorities in some areas, in conjunction with the neighborhood instability thesis. Essentially this affects racial minorities much more as its harder to form a community with those who are not like them. But, is something to consider exploring at a future time.
Limitations
The following project is not without a variety of limitations. By the very omission of age, the project also loses out on arguably one of the most important aspects of suicide. Suicide is a complex social narrative, and without the use of testimonies or other empirical data, the results provide a very surface-level presentation of the scope of suicide. Further nuance to the issue is lost when observing just state-level rates of suicide, compared to county, or city-level statistics. But suicide data is often available at the state level due to suppression of or lack of lower numbers of suicide rates or no data for certain areas. Second, by just using state, gender, and race as focal points for the study, again any inferences as to why suicide rates are increasing are largely theoretical at best, with these interpretations left to the reader to decide. Third, how could this data be used? Again, by merely showing the surface of suicides, and with the omission of age, it would be rather difficult to develop policies related to anything but targeting specific racial and ethnic groups and those of certain sexes. Suicide is a problem that affects every group, regardless of demographic composition so again, one that admittedly if read in certain ways would indicate “whites” need the most assistance with managing thoughts about suicide. When suicide rates are rising in all groups, and thus a more detailed, and comprehensive policy-driven post is needed. Essentially speaking, the big picture of suicide is not presented here. Further research, or maps that would use suicide data as the ones here would need to address several of the issues brought forth.
References Barkan, S. E., Rocque, M., & Houle, J. (2013). State and regional suicide rates: a new look at an old puzzle. Sociological Perspectives, 56(2), 287-297. Bush, James A. (1976) Suicide Among Blacks: A Conceptual Framework. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 6(4):216-222. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1997). Regional variations in suicide rates–United States, 1990-1994. MMWR: Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 46(34), 789-793. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Mortality 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html on Aug 18, 2022 4:40:08 PM Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, October 24). Facts about suicide. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html Comer, J P. 1973. Black Suicide: A Hidden Crisis. Urban Health 2(3)41-44. Danielsson, U.; Johansson, E.E. Beyond weeping and crying: A gender analysis of expressions of depression. Scand. J. Prim. Health Care (2005) 23, 171–177. Davis, R. (1978). Black Suicide and the Relational System: Theoretical and Empirical Implications of Communal and Familial Ties. Discussion Papers No. 481-78. Davis, R. (1980). Suicide among young blacks: Trends and perspectives. Phylon (1960-), 41(3), 223-229. Davis, R., & Short Jr, J. F. (1978). Dimensions of black suicide: a theoretical model. Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior, 8(3), 161-173. Early, K. E. (1992). Religion and suicide in the African-American community (No. 158). Greenwood Publishing Group. Gibbs J. T. (1997). African-American suicide: a cultural paradox. Suicide & life-threatening behavior, 27(1), 68–79. Haws, C. A., Gray, D. D., Yurgelun-Todd, D. A., Moskos, M., Meyer, L. J., & Renshaw, P. F. (2009). The possible effect of altitude on regional variation in suicide rates. Medical hypotheses, 73(4), 587-590. Kral, M. J. (2013). “The Weight on Our Shoulders Is Too Much, and We Are Falling”: Suicide among Inuit Male Youth in Nunavut, Canada. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 27(1), 63–83. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24029194 Leong, F. T., Leach, M. M., Yeh, C., & Chou, E. (2007). Suicide among Asian Americans: What do we know? What do we need to know? Death Studies, 31(5), 417-434. Olson, L. M., Wahab, S., Thompson, C. W., & Durrant, L. (2011). Suicide notes among Native Americans, Hispanics, and Anglos. Qualitative Health Research, 21(11), 1484-1494. Pepper, C. M. (2017). Suicide in the mountain west region of the United States. Crisis. Player, M. J., Proudfoot, J., Fogarty, A., Whittle, E., Spurrier, M., Shand, F., … & Wilhelm, K. (2015). What interrupts suicide attempts in men: a qualitative study. PLoS One, 10(6), e0128180. Rasmussen, M. L., Hjelmeland, H., & Dieserud, G. (2018). Barriers toward help-seeking among young men prior to suicide. Death studies, 42(2), 96-103. Richardson, C., Dickson, A., Robb, K. A., & O’Connor, R. C. (2021). The Male Experience of Suicide Attempts and Recovery: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(10), 5209. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105209 Silva, C., & Van Orden, K. A. (2018). Suicide among Hispanics in the United States. Current opinion in psychology, 22, 44-49. U.S Census Bureau. (2021). Census Regions and Divisions of the United States. Retrieved March 10, 2023, from https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf U.S. Census Bureau quickfacts: United States. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045221
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