Is unemployment less important than expected for suicide attempted in developing regions? Occupational profile of suicide attempts in Jujuy, north westernmost Argentina

Mental health practices consider unemployment as a suicide main risk factor, based on models built for populations of developed countries.

This study assesses the association between the occupational risk factor and suicidal behaviors, by considering sex, age and temporal distribution, in a Latin American Andean population from north westernmost Argentina.

Data include 481 suicide attempt cases assisted by emergency service psychologists at a head hospital in the Jujuy Province, northern Argentina, during two biennials. General categories and specific types of occupational situation, sex, age and temporal distribution were analyzed.

83.58% of cases corresponded to the with occupation category, but without occupation characterized male cases (p-value = .01). The type no referred occupation (19.15%) mainly contributed to this association (p-value = .02). Unemployed only represented 1.6%. These features revealed independent from the biennial period of assistance (p-value = .96 (general), p-value = .86 (specific)). Associations by age ranges did not seem to be specific of suicidal attempts.

The present contribution provides an occupational characterization of suicide attempts in an Andean population from north westernmost Argentina. Unemployment is not associated with suicidal behavior in this population, suggesting that dissimilar patterns underlie suicidal behavior of populations from developed and developing regions.