När arbetslösheten skördar liv : En kvantitativ regressionsanalys bland svenska regioners självmordsstatistik

Sammanfattning: The authors of this study is Matilda Svensson and Jonna Svensson, currently studying at Linnaeus University in Växjö. The name of the study is “When unemployment kills”. The aim of this study is to analyze Swedish counties and their suicide rates in relation to unemployment rates, depression and  usage of antidepressant medication. The theoretical datum is based in Durkheim's perspective of suicide as a social phenomenon. The study’s thesis is processed into three framing of questions. Is there a correlation between the occurrence of suicide and unemployment on a regional level, is there a correlation between the occurrence of suicide and depression on a regional level, Is there a correlation between the occurrence of suicide and antidepressant medication on a regional level? The data material is of aggregated secondary form, collected from Swedish databases. We did a descriptive overview of all the data, and then performed correlational analyzing and linear regression in SPSS to analyze the data. Our starting point is that there is a correlation between counties suicide rates and unemployment, depression and antidepressant medication. The descriptive overview indicates that there are regional differences between the counties among all the variables. However, the suicide rates are relatively consistent over time. There are also differences between men and women in terms of suicide ideation, depression and antidepressant medication. It’s possible to assume that women tend to be diagnosed with depression to a higher extent than men, and that men tend to commit suicide to a greater extent than women. However, the result does not indicate any significant correlation between the variables, although some counties did indicate that there was a significant correlation among men’s suicide rates and the independent variables. It's not possible to draw any conclusions based on the study's data material, other than the specific counties which did show a significant result.