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Table 4 Employment status and suicide risk

From: Suicidal risk factors and completed suicide: meta-analyses based on psychological autopsy studies

Author, published year (reference no.)

Country

No. of cases/controls

Age class, proportion of male (%)

Source of controls

Employment status

OR (95% CI)a

Lesage et al. 1994 [16]c

Canada

75/75

Young, 100

Community

Unemployed

1.24 (0.55–2.80)

Appleby et al. 1999 [20]

UK

84/64

Young, 81

GP lists

Unemployed

4.07 (1.56–11.86)

Foster et al. 1999 [21]

Ireland

117/117

All, 79

GP lists (deceased)

Unemployed

3.43 (1.46–8.71)

Cheng et al. 2000 [38]

Taiwan

113/226

All, 62

Community

Unemployed

2.22 (1.36–3.64)

Houston et al. 2001 [22]c

UK

22/22

Young, 100

Hospital (DSH)

Unemployed

1.00 (0.25–4.06)

Phillips et al. 2002 [35]

China

519/536

All, 63

Community (deceased)

Housewife, retired, or unemployed

2.33 (1.66–3.28)

Owens et al. 2003 [24]

UK

100/100

All, 67

GP lists

Unemployed

2.36 (1.28–4.33)

Gururaj et al. 2004 [26]

India

269/269

All, 64

Community

Unemployed

5.53 (2.89–11.27)

Duberstein et al. 2004 [39]

US

86/86

Old, 73

Community

Unemployed on disability/retired

3.15 (1.50–6.75)

Zhang et al. 2004 [25]

China

66/66

All, 73

Community

Unemployed

1.44 (0.64–3.29)

Chiu et al. 2004 [36]

Hong Kong

70/100

Old, 44

Community

No job/retired

0.44 (0.17–1.17)

Kõlves et al. 2006 [40]

Germany

163/163

All, 64

Community

Illicit work, retired, or unemployed

2.10 (1.30–3.42)

Kõlves et al. 2006 [29]

Estonia

427/427

All, 80

GP lists (Community`)

Illicit work, retired, unemployed, or other

3.10 (2.31–4.14)

Chen et al. 2006 [30]

Hong Kong

150/150

All, 64

Community

Unemployed

9.24 (4.81–18.45)

Harwood et al. 2006 [41]

UK

54/54

Old, 68

Hospital (deceased)

Problems related to occupation/retirement

9.22 (1.14–416)

Zonda et al. 2006 [31]

Hungary

100/100

All, 67

Community (deceased)

Unemployed/retired

1.94 (1.03–3.66)

Summaryb

No. of populations

Total (both genders)

14

2,318/2,458

 

 

 

2.71 (2.02–3.62)

*P < 0.001

Men

3

193/193

 

 

 

2.80 (0.47–16.83)

*P < 0.001

Old

3

210/240

 

 

 

1.99 (0.39–10.23)

*P = 0.001

  1. GP general practitioner, DSH deliberate self-harm
  2. *P for heterogeneity (Cochran Q test)
  3. aCrude odds ratio and 95% confidence interval
  4. bBased on random effects model
  5. cMen only