Demographic Characteristics Associated with Increased Incidence
of Suicide and Accidental Death
There were 27 suicides and 77 accidental deaths among patients with
ovarian cancer who were younger than 50 years old. These younger cancer
patients had almost the same risk of suicide as the general population
with the same distribution of age, sex, and race (SMR=1.25; 95% CI
[0.86-1.83]). But a significantly higher incidence of suicide and
accidental death in patients over 50 were observed. Among cancer
patients diagnosed between 50 and 59 years old, there were 36 suicides
of 32,298 patients, accounting for 33.6% of all suicides among patients
with ovarian cancer (Supplementary Table.1) . While for patients
whose age at diagnosis was more than 50 years old, the suicide risk
gradually decreased with age but increased after the age of 80.Supplementary Figure.3 showed the number and proportion of
suicides and accidental deaths in patients with ovarian cancer of
different histological subtypes at different ages.
Among all patients with ovarian cancer, white patients had the highest
risk of suicide (SMR=1.82; 95% CI [1.50-2.23]) and black patients
had the highest risk of accidental death (SMR=1.87; 95% CI
[1.27-2.75]). The predominant patients who committed suicide were
those with high education level (42, 39%), high income (43, 40%), and
metropolitan residents (97, 91%), with an SMR of 2.12 (95% CI
[1.57-2.87]), 2.05 (95% CI [1.52-2.77]), and 1.93 (95% CI
[1.58-2.35]), respectively.