3.4.5. Risk Factors

We were unable to identify specific risk factors for suicide in young men in Greenland because analyses of suicide risk factors aggregated all age groups or both genders, or lacked formal statistical tests. One study investigating seasonality found a significant midsummer peak for men of all ages, but this was not specific to young people [20]. One study, described briefly here, provided limited findings on occupational groups and triggering factors [22]. This reported absolute numbers and proportions of suicides in young men by occupation and triggering factors, for the aggregated period 1982–1986 [22], but did not use rates or statistical tests (perhaps due to relatively low numbers). Only tentative inferences can be made from their finding that 78% of suicides among youth aged 15–30 were in men, and that these men primarily worked in traditional hunting/fishing jobs, unskilled jobs, or were unemployed [22]. Using witness statements from police reports, this study also found that rejection by friends or parents "and other shameful situations" were implicated in 20% of male suicide cases in the age group 15–30 but comparisons with other groups were not presented [22]. One other study found that for all male suicides, 16% of death certificates mentioned alcohol dependence/intoxication, but lacked data on age groups [20], so again little can be inferred about young men.
