Altitude and Suicide

An analysis of National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) data revealed that suicide rates are higher among people who live at high altitudes than those living at lower elevations. This confirms previous research on the subject. However, the authors of this study suggest that the differences in suicide rates may be a result of the difficulty of finding resources to help cope with depression and other stressors, as well as a higher rate of firearms ownership, in high-elevation communities, rather than the physiological effects of high altitudes.

Although 83 percent of suicides studied occurred at low attitudes (compared to 5 percent at high attitudes), the “unadjusted suicide rates per 100,000 population were higher at high (17.7) than at low (5.6) altitude.” The suicide rate for people living at middle altitude was 11.9 per 100,000. The data analysis revealed that people who died by suicide at high altitude differed significantly from those who died at low altitude “with respect to multiple demographic, mental health, and suicide-related characteristics.” These differences remained even after adjusting for rural residence.

Family and friends of people who lived at high altitudes and died by suicide were more than twice as likely to report that the deceased was depressed than were family and friends of people who lived at lower altitudes and died by suicide. However, people who lived at high altitudes and died by suicide did not have higher rates of mental health treatment than people from low-altitude communities who died by suicide. The disparity between reported depression and mental health treatment persisted even after the data were adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity and race, and rural residence. The authors suggest that these findings support the theory that much of the difference between suicide rates at high and low altitudes can be attributed to differences in access to and/or use of mental health services in these communities.

The data analysis also revealed that people living at high and middle altitudes who died by suicide had a higher likelihood of experiencing an event such as a social crisis, the death of a family member or friend, or legal, relationship, health, financial, or academic problems, prior to their deaths. The authors report that their research cannot be used to compare the prevalence of these problems at different attitudes, but suggested that this finding also supports the theory that a lack of willingness or ability to access support services contributes to the elevated suicide rates found in these communities. The data analysis also found that suicides at high altitudes were more likely to involve firearms than those at low attitudes – a finding that supports the notion that the higher rate of firearms ownership among people living at high altitudes contributes to their elevated suicide rate. People dying by suicide at high altitudes were also more likely to have attempted suicide in the past, abused alcohol or drugs, been intoxicated at the time of their death, and to have been involved in intimate partner violence as a victim or perpetrator.

Betz, M. E., Valley, M. A., Lowenstein, S. R., Hedegaard, H., Thomas, D., Stallones, L., & Honigman, B. (2011). Elevated suicide rates at high altitude: Sociodemographic and health issues may be to blame. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 41(5), 562-573.