A comparison of suicide patterns in Australia and Hong Kong

Abstract

We analyse the patterns of 6564 suicides in Hong Kong and 23671 suicides in Australia for the period 1981-1993. Within the unifying framework of logistic regression we investigate how suicide rates vary with marital status and age and how these patterns vary over time and between the two cultures. The main significant differences between the two cultures are that rates are higher in Australia, rates for males are much higher than for females in Australia but only slightly higher in Hong Kong, in Hong Kong the oldest age group has the highest suicide rate unlike in Australia and the protective effects of marriage are larger in Australia.