Suicide is a major public health issue for all Americans, but new research suggests it is a particularly pressing problem for Hispanics.
Between 2010 and 2020, the suicide rate among Hispanic adults increased by more than 70%, while the Hispanic population in the United States only grew by about 25%, the researchers reported.
Study author Dr. Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of public health sciences at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, called that a disproportionate escalation.
“I think that, for me, the biggest surprise is that there have not been a few years where we saw a decline. It has been a constant increase, number one,” Khubchandani said. “Number two, I think this study is showing how prejudice and bias affect people.”
Khubchandani said mental health issues among dominant populations get more notice, as do those among children, teens, and elderly people. The same attention has not been directed to Hispanic adults, he said.
The researchers found that not only did suicide rates outpace population growth among Hispanics but that the southern and western regions of the United States had the highest suicide rates for this demographic in the country.
The total number of suicides among non-elderly Hispanic adults between 2010 and 2020 was nearly 31,200, with more than 25,000 of them men. In those years, the suicide rate among men grew by nearly 36% and in women by about 41%.
Read more at Healthday.com.
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