Baby boomers increase midlife suicide rate

WASHINGTON - Baby boomers are increasingly causing a rise in suicide rates among middle-aged people, found a new study.

Sociologists Ellen Idler of Emory and Julie Phillips of Rutgers University, made the above findings in a new analysis.

“The findings are disturbing, because they’re a reversal of a long-standing trend,” said Idler.

The suicide rate for the U.S. population overall has been declining for decades, Idler notes. And people aged 40-59, in particular, have long had a moderate suicide rate.

The baby boomers, people born between 1945 and 1964, have broken that pattern.

By 2000, most people aged 40 to 59 were baby boomers and the suicide rate started climbing steadily for these middle-age ranges.

The authors found significant increases of more than 2 percent per year for men, and more than 3 percent per year for women, from 1999 to 2005.

The post-1999 increase has been particularly dramatic for those who are unmarried and those without a college degree, the analysis showed.

For example, from 2000 to 2005, the suicide rate jumped nearly 30 percent for men and women aged 50 to 59 with some college but no degree.

Middle-aged people with a college degree appeared largely protected from the trend.

The baby boomers also experienced higher suicide rates during their adolescence and young adulthood, doubling the rate for those age groups at the time.

Their suicide rate then declined slightly and stabilized, before beginning to increase again in midlife.

“You might think that the higher rates in adolescence would lead to lower rates later because the most suicide prone people would be gone but that doesn’t appear to be the case,” said Idler.

“Clinical studies often show that knowing someone who committed suicide is considered a risk factor for later doing it yourself, and that may be one factor here. The high rates in adolescence could actually be contributing to the high rates in middle age,” he added.

Higher rates of substance abuse and the onset of chronic diseases are among other possible factors in the rising baby boomer suicide rate.

“As children, the baby boomers were the healthiest cohort that had ever lived, due to the availability of antibiotics and vaccines. Chronic conditions could be more of a rude awakening for them in midlife than they were for earlier generations,” said Idler.

The study has been published in the journal Public Health Reports. (ANI)