Suicide is a major public health problem. The number of years of potential life lost (YPLL) provides a complementary perspective for mortality assessment and health policy development. Previous studies have compared YPLL due to suicide with YPLL due to COVID-19 in the United States and Spain. However, no previous studies have explored these data worldwide to establish an adequate comparison. We believe that suicide deaths do not receive adequate attention when compared, for example, to deaths attributable to COVID-19. 1 In this case we have performed a comparative analysis of the years of life lost due to suicide and the pandemic, based on data that have been published in recent years. This study aims to quantify the global impact of suicide versus COVID-19 in terms of YPLL.
MethodsOur source was the World Health Organization mortality database as of September 2023. We included countries that had data on all-cause mortality for ages 0-75, presented by age groups in 2020. For suicide and COVID-19, YPLL and the percentage of YPLL over total causes of death were analyzed.
ResultsIn 10 out of 22 countries (45 %), YPLL due to suicide exceeded those due to COVID-19.
ConclusionsThe countries where the impact of suicide was greater than that produced by COVID-19 were Australia and Germany. Although all countries in the world for which data was available were analyzed, Europe was the region with the highest representation. In the case of Europe, the world region with the largest number of countries for which data are available, half of the countries analyzed have a higher number of years of potential life lost as a result of suicide than those lost due to COVID-19, the disease that became one of the leading causes of death in record time, with devastating socio-economic impact and damage. It is necessary to raise awareness about the impact of suicide. Suicide prevention requires a coordinated effort worldwide.