Suicide in the People's Republic of China categorized by age and gender: evidence of the influence of culture on suicide

Pritchard C. Suicide in the People's Republic of China categorized by age and gender: evidence of the influence of culture on suicide. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1996: 93: 362–367. © Munksgaard 1996. Throughout the developed world suicide is predominantly associated with psychiatric disorders and substance misuse. The main social factors are age, as suicide increases with each decade, and gender, as suicide is more frequent among men than women, and proportionately more young men die than their female peers. An analysis of suicide in the People's Republic of China found that the profile was the opposite to that reported in the rest of the world, as more female subjects kill themselves than males, particularly younger women. Also, unlike the situation in other countries, suicide occurred more often in rural than in urban areas. It is argued that the Chinese data provide evidence of a greater cultural influence upon suicide rates than had previously been realized.