The Epidemiological Use of Hospital Data for Suicide Surveillance in Belgium.

ABSTRACT

Aims: Investigating the E codes related to suicide and self-inflicted injuries through the prevalence, the patient characteristics, the methods and means employed and the characteristics of the hospital stays; and compare them with the others E codes group. Study Design: Retrospective hospital-based analytical study. Place and Duration of Study This study was based on the 2010 data of 13 Belgian hospitals. Methodology: Based on 16406 cases of patients with a least an E code (ICD-9-CM); Pearson’s chi-squaretests, simple logistic regressions and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to assess the variations between distributions of the investigated factors according to the injury’s groups. Results: Among all the E codes, prevalence of suicide and self-inflicted injury was equal to 10.6%. The poisoning was the major reported diagnosis. There were significantly Original Research Article British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research, 4(26) 4407-4430, 2014 4408 more discharges without consent in the suicide group than in the others. The length of stay was lowest in the suicide group compared to the others E codes group. The several median costs were always highest among the men, but, regarding the median percentage of the pharmaceutical products, the value was highest among the women. Conclusion: The epidemiological use of hospital data is complementary to the use of both the population-based data and the death certificates; each data source participating to a better comprehension and a better surveillance of the complex continuum of suicidality.