Table 2.

Characteristics of rock and pop star sample by geographical region

Characteristics	Total		Europe		North America		p*
	N	%	N	%	N	%
All	1489	100	657	100	832	100
Male	1375	92.3	613	93.3	762	91.6	0.216
White	1321	88.7	632	96.2	689	82.8	<0.001
Music genre
Pop/rock	1350	90.7	616	93.8	734	88.2	<0.001
R&B	42	2.8	3	0.5	39	4.7	<0.001
Electronica	33	2.2	30	4.6	3	0.4	<0.001
New age	4	0.3	4	0.6	0	0.0	0.024
Punk	3	0.2	3	0.5	0	0.0	0.051
Rap	57	3.8	1	0.2	56	6.7	<0.001
Solo performer	165	11.1	51	7.8	114	13.7	<0.001
Died by 20/02/2012	137	9.2	38	5.8	99	11.9	<0.001
Likely cause of death (% of dead)
1 Chronic disorder (drug/alcohol)†	10	7.3	1	2.6	9	9.1	0.193
2 Drug/alcohol overdose	25	18.2	10	26.3	15	15.2	0.130
3 Accident (drug/alcohol related)	7	5.1	4	10.5	3	3.0	0.074
4 Suicide	4	2.9	1	2.6	3	3.0	0.901
5 Violence	7	5.1	1	2.6	6	6.1	0.414
6 Other accident	19	13.9	5	13.2	14	14.1	0.881
7 Cardiovascular disease	21	15.3	4	10.5	17	17.2	0.334
8 Cancer	25	18.2	8	21.1	17	17.2	0.599
9 Other	18	13.9	3	10.5	15	15.2	0.483
(1–5) All substance use or risk related	53	38.7	17	44.7	36	36.4	0.368

*p (probability) describes differences between North American and European rock and pop stars. Percentages are compared using χ².

†Chronic drug and alcohol disorders include liver, kidney and gastrointestinal diseases linked with substance use.