Incidence and risk factors of homicide-suicide in Swiss households: National Cohort study

Homicide-suicides are rare but catastrophic events. This study examined the epidemiology of homicide-suicide in Switzerland. The study identified homicide-suicide events 1991-2008 in persons from the same household in the Swiss National Cohort, which links census and mortality records. The analysis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-01, Vol.8 (1), p.e53714-e53714
Main Authors: Panczak, Radoslaw, Zwahlen, Marcel, Spoerri, Adrian, Tal, Kali, Killias, Martin, Egger, Matthias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescents
Adult
Age Distribution
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Catastrophic events
Child
Children
Cohort analysis
Cohort Studies
Confidence intervals
Correlation analysis
Criminology
Death
Demographic variables
Demographics
Epidemiology
Family Characteristics
Female
Firearms
Hazards
Health aspects
Homicide
Homicide - statistics & numerical data
Households
Humans
Identification methods
Incidence
Living conditions
Male
Medical research
Medicine
Men
Middle Aged
Mortality
Murder
Personal communication
Preventive medicine
Psychological stress
Regression analysis
Regression models
Risk analysis
Risk Factors
Small arms
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social interactions
Socioeconomic factors
Statistical analysis
Stress (Psychology)
Studies
Suicide
Suicide - statistics & numerical data
Suicides & suicide attempts
Switzerland - epidemiology
Young Adult
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Summary:Homicide-suicides are rare but catastrophic events. This study examined the epidemiology of homicide-suicide in Switzerland. The study identified homicide-suicide events 1991-2008 in persons from the same household in the Swiss National Cohort, which links census and mortality records. The analysis examined the association of the risk of dying in a homicide-suicide event with socio-demographic variables, measured at the individual-level, household composition variables and area-level variables. Proportional hazards regression models were calculated for male perpetrators and female victims. Results are presented as age-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). The study identified 158 deaths from homicide-suicide events, including 85 murder victims (62 women, 4 men, 19 children and adolescents) and 68 male and 5 female perpetrators. The incidence was 3 events per million households and year. Firearms were the most prominent method for both homicides and suicides. The risk of perpetrating homicide-suicide was higher in divorced than in married men (HR 3.64; 95%CI 1.56-8.49), in foreigners without permanent residency compared to Swiss citizens (HR 3.95; 1.52-10.2), higher in men without religious affiliations than in Catholics (HR 2.23; 1.14-4.36) and higher in crowded households (HR 4.85; 1.72-13.6 comparing ≥2 with
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0053714