New Study Reveals Suicide Rate in Women Rises by 50 Percent

According to a new report by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the rates of suicide continue to rise for both women and men in the US.

This alarming discovery was reported by medpagetoday.com.

NCHS researchers found a 30 percent increase overall in the suicide rate from 2000 to 2016.

"Since 2000, there was an average 1% increase in the suicide rate each year up until 2006, when the suicide rate then increased to 2% annually through 2016," wrote Holly Hedegaard, MD, of the NCHS Office of Analysis and Epidemiology in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Over the past decade, suicide has been ranked as the 10th leading cause of death in the US across all ages.  However, in 2016, it was the second leading cause of death among individuals ages 10 to 34.

"Although the Healthy People 2020 target is to reduce suicide rates to 10.2 per 100,000 by 2020, suicide rates have steadily increased in recent years," the authors warned.

Although the data collected by the researchers saw a rise in suicides among both sexes, women had a higher rise in suicides -- a 50 percent increase from 2000 to 2016.

The study shows the women's group aged 45 - 64 had the highest suicide rate.

Among men, there was a 21 percent increase in the suicide rate during the ten-year analysis. 

While the suicide rate rose less during the study period, men committing suicide were still more common.

Hedegaard's group analyzed data from the National Vital Statics System, which included information on cause-of-death mortalities.