An 8% annual increase in the number of 8-12-year-olds who die by suicide in the US is alarming, new data shows
New data shows an 8 percent annual increase in suicide among 8- to 12-year-olds in the United States, with the largest increase among girls.
According to a team led by Donna Ruch of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, suicide is now the fifth leading cause of death among both adolescent boys and girls.
Ruch works at the hospital’s Center for Suicide Prevention and Research. His team published their findings in the journal July 30 JAMA Network Open.
In recent years, the increase in suicides among children has worried experts.
Since 2007, there has been an annual increase of 8.2% in child suicides.
Between 2001 and 2007, there were 3.3 cases per 1 million population, Ruch’s team noted.
By 2022, this figure has increased to 5.7 cases per million.
In absolute numbers, suicides are more common among boys than among girls, and the death rate is almost twice as high. But suicide among girls is increasing faster.
It was published in JAMA Network Open along with another report on youth suicide.
A second study led by Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, an emergency physician at Children’s Hospital of Chicago, found that 3 out of 5 young people who kill themselves in the United States do not have a mental health problem.