The home foreclosure crisis and rising suicide rates, 2005 to 2010

Résumé

textbfOBJECTIVES: We examined the association between state-level foreclosure and suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 and considered variation in the effect of foreclosure on suicide by age. textbfMETHODS: We used hybrid random- and fixed-effects models to examine the relation between state foreclosure rates and total and age-specific suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 (n = 306 state-years). textbfRESULTS: Net of other factors, an increase in the within-state total foreclosure rate was associated with a within-state increase in the crude suicide rates (b = 0.04; P textless .1), and effects were stronger for the real estate-owned foreclosure rate (b = 0.16; P textless .05). Analysis of age-specific suicide rates indicated that the effects were strongest among the middle-aged (46-64 years: total foreclosure rate