Drastic rise in suicide in 2000s, but Malta rates are lowest in Europe

The Maltese may have been more financially deprived in the politically charged 1980s but there were definitely less suicides, a study by Finnish experts published in the Malta Medical Journal shows.

The study shows that the suicide rates of men between 2005 and 2009 was 70 times higher than it was between 1980 and 1984. The suicide rate of females was, in comparison, only nine times higher than it was between 1980 and 1984.

Despite the drastic increase, suicide rates in Malta remained the lowest in the eleven European countries which were surveyed. But Malta was the only European country whose suicide rate peaked during the first decade of the century.

The study authored by three Finnish experts and published in the Malta Medical Journal shows that Malta’s suicide rate has increased drastically since the 1980s.

Suicide rates in 11 European counties, including Malta, showed  suicide mortality rising from the 1950s until the 1980s, after which several counties experienced a decline in the 2000s.

For males, this pattern of change was confirmed for all studied countries except Finland, Ireland, and Malta, showing their highest suicide rates in the 1990s or 2000s.

A similar pattern was evident for females. The suicides rates peaked n the 1980s, and declined thereafter, except in Finland, and Malta, where suicide rates peaked later.

For both sexes, the suicide rates reached their maximum in Finland during the five-year period of 1990-1994. In Malta, the highest male and female suicide rates were obtained in the 2005-2009 and 2000-2004 periods, respectively.

Despite this increase Malta consistently registered one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe.

For females, no suicides were registered in Malta during the periods 1955-1959 and 1970-1979.

Considerable changes were observed for Malta also when comparing the suicide rates from the early 1980s and the 2000s.

During the former period, the male and female suicide rates remained at level of 0.134 and 0.111 (suicide deaths per 100,000 persons), respectively, whereas during the latter period the rates of 9.845 and 1.208 were obtained.

Suicide rates in Malta corresponded to the general trend showing higher rates in northern Europe and lower rates in southern European countries.

But Malta did not experience the decline in suicide rates during the 1990s and 2000s experienced in all other European countries. “On the contrary (during the 2000s), the overall low level of suicides in Malta were contrasted by the increase in suicide rates since those years, especially in the case of males.”

A feature common to Malta and Finland was that their highest suicidal mortalities were not observed in the 1980s but during the following decades. In Finland, the high level of suicide rates during 1980s evoked a parliamentary committee on suicide, and a suicide prevention programme was initiated. At the end of the research phase, the national suicide prevention target and action strategy was published and distributed throughout Finland.

Although Malta’s suicide rate remains much lower than Finland’s, the authors recommend a suicide programme to mitigate the situation.

The study is authored by Samuli Helama from the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Jari Holopainen from the Department of Geosciences and Geography in the University of Helsinki and Timo Partonen from the Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare.