The British Journal of Psychiatry (2009) 195: 459-460. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.108.053728
© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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SHORT REPORT

Gender differences in healthcare service utilisation 1 year before suicide: national record linkage study

Chia-Ming Chang, MD, PhD

Department of Psychiatry and Suicide Prevention Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, and Chang Gung University, Lin-Ko, Taiwan

Shih-Cheng Liao, MD, MS

Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital

Hung-Chi Chiang, MPH

National Suicide Prevention Center

Ying-Yeh Chen, MD, PhD

Taipei City Psychiatric Centre, Taipei City

Kwan-Cho Tseng, MD, PhD

Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital

Yeuk-Lun Chau, MS

Department of Psychiatry and Suicide Prevention Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Lin-Ko

Hsiu-Ju Chang, PhD, RN

College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University

Ming-Been Lee, MD

Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taiwan National Suicide Prevention Center, Taiwan

Correspondence: Ming-Been Lee, Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, No.7 Chung San South Road, Taipei, Taiwan. Email: mingbeen{at}ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw

Declaration of interest

None.

All suicides (n=12 497) in Taiwan in 2001–2004 were identified from mortality records retrieved from the National Health Insurance Database. Altogether, 95.1% of females and 84.9% of males had been in contact with healthcare services in the year before their death. Females received significantly more diagnoses of psychiatric disorders (48.0% v. 30.2%) and major depression (17.8% v. 7.4%) than males. Such differences were consistent across different medical settings where contact with hospital-based non-psychiatric physicians was as common as with general practitioners (GPs). However, diagnoses of psychiatric disorders were underdiagnosed in both genders.