3.4.2. Temporal Trends

Only one study described temporal changes in suicide rates for young men, reporting rates for seven specific years over 1970–1995, but solely for West Greenland and using relatively wide age bands [20]. This recorded a zero suicide rate for young men aged 15–24 in 1970, and all reported suicide cases in men that year were within the age group 35–59 years [20]. By 1976 suicide rates in men aged 15–24 had risen dramatically to 249 per 100,000, becoming the group at highest risk, ranking above those for men aged 25–34 at 123 per 100,000 [20]. They remained the highest risk group at all remaining data points (1982, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1995), having peaked at 577 per 100,000 in 1990, and fallen to 238 per 100,000 in 1995 [20]. Throughout this period, men aged 25–34 also had high suicide rates, reaching a maximum of 297 per 100,000 in 1990 (compared with 577 per 100,000 for men aged 15–24). However, by 1995 the disparity between high suicide rates in men aged 15–24 and those aged 25–34 was less marked, at 238 *versus* 219 per 100,000 [20].
