Study shows surge in suicide rates among young indigenous Brazilians
Researchers from Brazil’s research foundation Fiocruz and Harvard University have carried out the first study on suicide among indigenous and non-indigenous people in Brazil. It assessed rates from 2000 to 2020 and showed a disproportionately higher risk among indigenous people, especially those aged between 10 and 24.
The North and Central-West regions had the highest risk of suicide among indigenous people, most notably in Amazonas and Mato Grosso do Sul states.
Entitled Suicide Among Indigenous Peoples in Brazil from 2000 to 2020: A Descriptive Study, published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, the survey considered data from the Ministry of Health.
The research explores the nuances of this problem in the middle of Yellow September, the month dedicated to suicide prevention in Brazil, Fiocruz Amazônia epidemiologist Jesem Orellana, one of the authors, noted. Suicide rates among indigenous people, he went on, were usually higher among men and individuals aged between 10 and 24.
“In men from regions such as the Midwest and North, these rates reached 73.75 and 52.05 per 100 thousand people in 2018 and 2017 respectively. In individuals aged 10–24 in the North, the age group most at risk of indigenous suicide, these rates increased substantially from 2013 onwards, contrary to the downward trend observed in the Central-West region. This is an important distinction compared to the highest risk group in Brazil’s general population, as historically the age group of individuals aged 60 and over is the one with the highest risk of suicide,” Orellana said in a statement.
The study also showed that, at a national level, both the suicide rates of the Brazilian indigenous population and those of the non-indigenous population showed an upward movement from 2000 to 2020. “However, this pattern cannot be generalized, especially among indigenous people, as states such as Amazonas, in the North, and Mato Grosso do Sul, in the Centra-West, seem to be responsible for the substantial differences observed when comparing national data between indigenous and non-indigenous people,” he remarked.
The researcher pointed out that the results reinforce how extremely vulnerable indigenous people are to suicide in Brazil, particularly men between the ages of 10 and 24 living in the states of Amazonas and Mato Grosso do Sul, which highlights the need to prioritize the allocation of funding and the creation of strategies to reduce risk factors associated with suicide, especially social inequality and limited access to mental health care.
“We need to see indigenous suicide as a serious and invisible public health problem, which can be influenced by a range of contextual and cultural specificities—such as territorial conflicts, health crises, structural racism, as well as economic, political, and psychological issues,” Orellana said.
