The researchers examined patient cases from Olmsted County in Minnesota that listed “suicide” as the cause of death between Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2009. They noted any psychiatric or nonpsychiatric healthcare visits that occurred in the 12 months, six months and four weeks preceding death.
Ultimately, the study showed “there was no significant difference in the odds of having had any contact with the healthcare system in the year before death. In other words, merely stating that suicide decedents have had contact with the healthcare system in the past year is not in and of itself a distinguishing factor of healthcare use.”
Suicide decedents were, however, significantly more likely to have had a mental health diagnosis and were significantly more likely to have visited an outpatient, inpatient or emergency department setting for mental health reasons.
Interestingly, suicide decedents also had a significantly higher number of healthcare visits of any sort in the 12 months, six months and four weeks preceding death and spent significantly more days in the hospital for psychiatric or nonpsychiatric reasons than did controls, suggesting that they may have been sicker overall.
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