Socioeconomic change and suicide: a time-series study from the Republic of Ireland

This ecological study examined the association between seven socioeconomic indicators (GDP, unemployment rate, female labor force participation rate, alcohol expenditure, marriage rate, percentage of births outside of marriage, and indictable crime rate) and total, male, and female rates of suicide and suicide plus undetermined death in Ireland during the period 1968-2000. Analysis of the data expressed as absolute values showed highly significant associations between the socioeconomic indicators and the total, male, and female suicide rates. However, these associations were explained by the strongly trended data. The trended nature of the data was removed by using year-to-year differences. Analysis of the first-differenced data showed that none of the socioeconomic indicators was associated with the total, male, or female suicide rates with the exception of indictable crime, which had a significant independent effect on the female suicide rate (coefficient = 2.0, p < .01) but not on suicide plus undetermined death. This study highlights the need to use econometric methods in time-trend analyses, the lack of age-sex specific exposure data in this area, and the challenge of understanding trends in suicide in their socioeconomic context.     

老挝政治展望

尽管老挝从20世纪80年代以来就逐渐迈向经济改革,但是,执政的老挝人民革命党一直保留以共产主义为中心的本色,老挝继续成为社会主义国家.马克思列宁主义仍然是老挝革命党的指导思想.然而,老挝自20世纪70年代末以来,已经逐渐从较强硬的思想立场发生转变,因此,不能说老挝在追随着原始的马克思列宁主义路线.从某种程度看,这反映领导者采取了务实态度,在保持政治稳定之后,老挝人民革命党的合法性在一定程度上取决于能否满足人们的经济需要,正如他的兄弟国家越南一样.虽然老挝在过去的15年里已经开展了经济改革,但是丝毫没有把政治改革提到政策日程上来.政治多元化的思想没有得到老挝人民革命党的接受.除了老挝人民革命党以外的政党在法定上均被禁止.依据老挝宪法第一章,老挝人民革命党是老挝政治体制的"领导核心".