Rural Vs. Urban Suicide Rates Among Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescent suicide, the act or an instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally, is a worldwide problem. “Close to 800,000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds,” (WHO). In adolescents, suicide is the second leading cause of death globally. These statistics are important to nurses in particular so they are able to know the early warning signs and risks behaviors that adolescents are engaged in, who may have suicidal ideations. Being able to catch these signs, a nurse would be able to get help for the adolescent and prevent the suicide from happening. A large risk factor for suicide is the location of where a person lives, particularly if it is a rural or urbanized area. The U.S. Census Bureau defines an urbanized area to be one that consists of 50,000 or more people; urban clusters have at least 2,500 but less than 50,000 people; any communities with a lesser population are considered to rural populations. The purpose of this evidence-based practice brief is to describe the relationship between the population size of where a person lives, and the number of completed adolescent suicides.