Suicide in the capital of Serbia and Montenegro in the period 1997-2004 - sex differences.

There are very few investigations about sex differences in suicide which include some other variables (e.g. age, profession etc). Data which concern suicide sex differences are obscure and usually are given in statistical accounts of causes of death. The aim of our study was to investigate sex differences in realized suicides within the city of Belgrade during the last eight year period. Data was taken from the index records of suicide in the city of Belgrade held at the Institute for Informatics and Statistics. We took sex as the main observed variable, and analyzed nine other variables as related to sex. Statistical analysis was done by using the crude specific rate. The variability of the rate was estimated by computing a confidence interval. The results of our study gave the profile of males and females who committed suicide in Belgrade in the period of the last eight years. Although there were significant quantitative differences, the female/male profile of completed suicides is similar, and differs only in the method of suicide: both males and females choose hanging, drowning and suffocation as the most common method of suicide, while poisoning is on the second most common method chosen by females and firearms the second most common method for males. The frequency of suicide, in both sexes, showed a tendency to decrease over the observed period (the highest suicide rate was in 2000- females 9.7, males 19.7, and the lowest in 2004- females 4.5 males 9.1). Male to female suicide rate ratio was 2 to 1. Sex differences were registered in all of the observed nine variables.