Description of Suicidal Deaths in Babylon Province for the period ۲۰۱۸-۲۰۲۱

Background and Objective: Suicide is the act of deliberately causing one’s death. Risk factors for suicide include mental, neurological disorders, cancer, and stress. Suicide could be performed by hanging, poisoning, burning, drowning, self-cutting, firearms and other methods. Objective of this study is to identify the trend of suicide deaths, and to describe the demographical features of suicidal victims in Babylon Governorate.Materials and Methods: This study is a cross sectional descriptive study performed on a total of ۸۹ suicidal deaths, data were collected from the records of Forensic Medicine Center of Babylon province during periods of January ۲۰۱۸ to the end of December ۲۰۲۱. The data included demographic age, sex, residence, educational level, occupation, and methods of suicide.Results: Eighty-nine suicide death cases were reported in Babylon forensic medicine department during four years period (۲۰۱۸-۲۰۲۱). Male to female ratio was ۲:۱, male mean age was significantly higher than female (P<۰.۰۵), it was (۲۶ vs ۲۲ year for male and female respectively). There was an increasing trend in suicide deaths in Babylon province, the main method of suicide deaths was hanging among males while burning was the main method of suicide deaths in this study.Conclusion: The trend of suicide deaths is growing, young adults were the main victims of suicide in Babylon governorate, Males were more prone to suicide deaths, and the most common method of termination life was hanging. More attention should be focused on young individuals to raise the awareness about hanging; further researches might be required in order to bring the focus on this problem and factors that drive individuals to commit suicide.

Keywords:

suicide deaths , trend , Babylon governorate , Iraq