Table 5.
Cross-county associations between suicide rates (total and method-specific) and household firearm ownership and antidepressants prescription rates, 2001-2005
| All suicide | Firearm suicide | Nonfirearm suicide | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRR* | 95% CI | P-value | IRR* | 95% CI | P-value | IRR* | 95% CI | P-value | |
| Crude analyses | |||||||||
| NonTCA^:TCA ratio | 0.90 | (0.86, 0.93) | <.0001 | 0.80 | (0.75, 0.86) | <.0001 | 1.00 | (0.96, 1.04) | 0.9867 |
| Multivariate analyses | |||||||||
| Household firearm ownership | 1.23 | (1.18, 1.28) | <.0001 | 1.60 | (1.52, 1.70) | <.0001 | 1.00 | (0.95, 1.05) | 0.9658 |
| NonTCA^:TCA ratio | 1.01 | (0.96, 1.06) | 0.6820 | 1.01 | (0.95, 1.08) | 0.7400 | 1.03 | (0.97, 1.09) | 0.3802 |
| % Population living in urban area | 0.98 | (0.94, 1.02) | 0.3824 | 0.92 | (0.87, 0.97) | 0.0019 | 1.03 | (0.98, 1.08) | 0.3042 |
| Median income | 0.92 | (0.87, 0.96) | 0.0005 | 0.87 | (0.81, 0.93) | <.0001 | 0.95 | (0.90, 1.01) | 0.0997 |
| Unemployment rate | 0.96 | (0.93, 1.00) | 0.0453 | 0.97 | (0.92, 1.02) | 0.2156 | 0.95 | (0.91, 0.99) | 0.0279 |
*IRR for Household Firearm Ownership and Antidepressant Prescriptions are the relative increase in suicides for one standard deviation away.
^Non-TCA are primarily SSRIs (SNRIs constitute the second most commonly prescribed class).
Abbreviations: IRR, Incidence Rate Ratio; CI, Confidence Intervals; TCA, Tricyclic Antidepressants from the mean rate.