Suicide, gender and socio-economic factors: a panel study of 79 counties in the Slovak Republic

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between suicide rates broken down by gender and socio-economic factors in the Slovak Republic. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses panel data of 79 counties of the Slovak Republic for the period 1997-2019. Methodology used includes fixed effects regression and sensitivity analysis. Also, regressions with lagged variables are used. Findings The results show that per capita income and unemployment rate are associated with increased risk of suicide rates for both genders. Economic growth is negatively correlated and significant only for women. Women's participation in the labor market does not have a significant impact. Social factors, such as divorce and fertility rate, have a significant effect on men but insignificant on women. Strong faith is associated with increasing men's suicide rates. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the results. This paper also examined the possibility of cumulation of the effects by using lagged variables. Unemployment rate has a significant effect only in the simultaneous year and for men only. Per capita income and economic growth have insignificant impact for both the genders. Divorce rate has a significant positive relationship for men, if measured in the previous year. The fertility rate is negatively correlated with the suicide rate of women up to two years after the birth. Higher participation of women in the labor market has a positive relationship with men's suicides in the simultaneous year. Research limitations/implications Few limitations of this paper need to be stated. First, the data are not balanced, as data for some districts and years are missing. Also, it is possible to collect data only for a maximum period of 29 years (as the Slovak Republic exists only from year 1993). Moreover, important variables in suicide research, like alcohol consumption or drug use, are not collected on the district level. Therefore, poor data availability is putting barriers to research of this area in the Slovak Republic. Second, there is a lack of previous studies in the Slovak Republic. According to the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to deal with issue of suicides and socio-economic factors in the Slovak Republic; therefore, some important factors of the Slovak Republic influencing the results of this paper may be missed. Third, limitations in the methodological approach might influence the paper. The lagged-variables approach might require further methodological improvements and research like implementing a structural regression model. Originality/value According to knowledge of the authors, this relationship has not yet been examined in Slovakia. This provided space for this paper. According to the information presented in this paper, it is important to take individual economic and social circumstances into account when developing suicide prevention programs. The results of this paper may lead to useful guidelines for health policymakers, but addressing this issue certainly requires further research.