Suicide by tobacco use rises in U.S. young people

More young adults are dying by suicide – a trend that may be worsening in part because of a growing awareness of the danger of smoking for parents and siblings medical experts said.

Currently about 1000 each year are dying by suicide with a tobacco-related cause according to The American Medical Association.

The new data covering 2012 to 2018 are the first such head-to-head comparison of suicide mortality rates for young people from the two most common methods of smoking – traditional cigarettes and hookah smoke.

Today were faced with a pressing need to describe the data and draw conclusions said James P. Finney an associate professor of public health sciences who studies tobacco-related injuries health behaviors and health interventions. Suicide conditions are usually associated with a combination of substance abuse and tobacco use disorder in which the two can act together making suicide more likely.

The study showed a slight decline in suicide-related deaths among 15- to 24-year-olds with no significant increase through 25-year-olds. It also found that the decline was more dramatic and rapid among minorities from lower socioeconomic status.

Although suicide has been involved in increasing among minority groups for decades suicide was more common among adolescent and young adult youth in the U. S. Finney said. We found that in those 15- to 24-year-old groups suicide death rates were 6. 35 times higher if the suicide was from external causes or from an unhealthy mental or physical conduct.

The data underscore the urgent need for more education about the dangers coupled with the opportunity to quit to reduce the risk for young people the researchers said.

In World Health Organization (WHO) countries girls are more than twice as likely as boys to die by suicide and per capita suicide is much higher among girls than among boys Finney said.

He said the findings show that on many of these groups tobacco is a much more pressing need and for young people massive numbers of tobacco users are dying by suicide.