Data source
For exploring the means of suicide in countries of the Americas, the PAHO Mortality Database (MD) was used as the data source. The MD comprises all registered deaths by national vital registration and health statistics system with information on the underlying cause of death coded according to ICD-10, age, sex, country, and year from 1995 to 2021.
The data available on the PAHO MD have different levels of completeness, coverage, and quality of underlying causes of death. Data from Bolivia, Haiti, and Honduras were excluded because of the following reasons: i) available data for a few years; ii) data completeness and integrity is lower than 30%; and iii) low data quality on diagnosis and coding of the underlying cause of death.
The data contained in the MD is periodically updated with new data provided by PAHO Member States and territories, however, the current version was updated as of November 2022.
Data included in this analysis
For this analysis, only registered deaths with underlying causes of death classified and coded as intentional self-harm (Suicide, ICD-10: X60-X84) were used from the Regional Mortality Database.
For analysis and presentation purposes, the single cause categories under intentional self-harm (ICD-10 codes: X60-X84) were grouped in clusters of means of suicide. The clusters of means of suicide were built in a way that assures they are helpful for public health interventions:
| Group of intentional self-injury |
Clusters of means of suicide with corresponding ICD-10 codes |
| Intentional self-poisoning |
by exposure to drugs, medicaments, and biological substances (ICD-10 codes: X60-X64)
by exposure to alcohol (X65)
by exposure to organic solvent, vapors and gasses, and chemicals (X66-X67, X69)
by exposure to pesticides (X68) |
| Intentional self-harm |
by hanging, strangulation, and suffocation (X70)
by drowning and submersion (X71)
by firearms, handguns, rifles, shotguns, and other firearms discharge (X72-X74)
by explosive materials, smoke, fire, steam, hot vapors, and hot objects (X75-X77)
by sharp objects (X78)
by blunt objects (X79)
by jumping from a high place or lying before moving objects (X80-X81)
by crashing of motor vehicles and other specified means (X82-X83)
by unspecified means (X84) |
Detailed information about the intentional self-harm (suicide) category of cause of death is available in the WHO International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10).
Registered deaths with unknown age and unknown sex were excluded from this analysis and visualization.
Outcome measures
The number of deaths due to suicide and percentage of total deaths breakdown by specific cause category of intentional self-harm (suicide, coded at three characters of ICD-10 codes), country, sex, and year.
