Baby Boomers on Leading Edge Again Setting the
Pace in Middle Age Suicides
Substance abuse and chronic diseases are among other
possible factors in the rising baby boomer suicide rate
Sept.
27, 2010 - Baby boomers, members of the age group born between 1945 and
1964, have played an important role in shaping America since their
teenage years. They are in the forefront again. Now, however, they
appear to be driving a dramatic rise in suicide rates among middle-aged
people.
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The findings are disturbing,
because theyre a reversal of a long-standing trend, says sociologists
Ellen Idler of Emory, who did the analysis with Julie Phillips of
Rutgers University. Their report is published in the journal
Public Health Reports.
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.
(See graphs for men and women below story.)
The baby boomers 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. (By 2005, all middle-aged
people were baby boomers.)
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 doesnt appear to be
the case, Idler says.
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.
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, Idler says.
Chronic conditions could be
more of a rude awakening for them in midlife than they were for earlier
generations.
Traditionally, midlife has
been considered a time when people are at their peak of social
integration. We need to pay attention to this new increase in suicides,
during a period of life previously thought to be stable and relatively
protected from suicide, and in an age group now occupied by
extraordinarily large numbers of people, Idler says.
Data for the study were drawn
from the National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census
Bureau. Preliminary data from 2006 and 2007, the latest time that
statistics are available, indicate that the upward pattern in midlife
suicide is continuing, according to Idler.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
boomers
Sept.
27, 2010 - Baby boomers, members of the age group born between 1945 and
1964, have played an important role in shaping America since their
teenage years. They are in the forefront again. Now, however, they
appear to be driving a dramatic rise in suicide rates among middle-aged
people. 
