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Suicide rates in the U.S. rose to their highest level ever last year, with the oldest adults having the high rates of suicide among any age group, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A record 49,449 Americans took their own lives in 2022, up 2.6% from the previous year, based on provisional data from the CDC. The age group with the biggest increase in death by suicide was those 65 years and older, with an 8.1% jump in deaths.
The provisional data come from U.S. death certificates, but the data may change slightly as death information is reviewed in the months ahead.
The increase in suicide comes as the U.S. surgeon general has declared loneliness a deadly epidemic. Adding to that, the number of people living alone has surged to about 29% of the U.S. population.
Read: ‘There’s a lot of lonely people out there.’ Is loneliness killing you?
By another measure, the oldest adults suffered the most. Adults aged 85 and older have the highest rate of suicide, at 22.4 incidents per 100,000 people, followed by those 75 years old to 84 years old, at 19.6 incidents per 100,000, according to the CDC.
Many middle-aged and elderly people experience problems like losing a job or losing a spouse, Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, told the Associated Press. It’s important to reduce the stigma and other obstacles to them getting assistance, Houry said.
Last year, for example, the first national mental-health crisis hotline was created. Similar to dialing 911 to reach police and first responders, people can dial 988 to be connected to trained mental-health counselors.
According to the National Council on Aging, older adults tend to plan suicide more carefully and they are more likely to use more lethal methods. Among people who attempt suicide, one in four seniors will succeed, compared to 1 in 200 youths.
Also, even if a senior fails a suicide attempt, they are less likely to recover from the effects, the NCOA said.
Older men were particularly at risk for suicide. Men aged 75 and older had the highest rate (42.2 deaths per 100,000) compared to other age groups. Non-Hispanic white men had the highest suicide rate (50.1 per 100,000) compared to men of other races and ethnicities in the same age group, the CDC said.
The recorded increase in suicide among older adults came as the World Health Organization said that social isolation and loneliness have a serious impact on older people’s longevity, their physical and mental health, and their quality of life.
The effect of social isolation and loneliness on mortality has been compared to that of other well-established risk factors for mortality such as smoking, obesity and physical inactivity, the WHO said.
Read: Once you hit this age, you’re far more likely to feel lonely
In addition to loneliness, the NCOA cited the following issues as risk factors for suicide in older adults: grief over lost loved ones, loss of self-sufficiency, chronic illness and pain, cognitive impairment and financial troubles.
To put the national tragedy of suicide in perspective, the CDC said there was one death by suicide every 11 minutes in 2021. In total, 12.3 million adults thought seriously about suicide that year, with 3.5 million adults making a plan and 1.7 million adults attempting suicide.
Read: Americans are lonelier than ever — and that’s bad for your health
In 2022, the demographic with the greatest number of total deaths by suicide was those aged 25 to 44 years old, at 16,843 deaths.
White people had the great number of suicides in 2022, at 37,459 deaths, up 2.1%. Men also suffered worse than women, with 39,255 deaths by suicide versus 10,194 deaths among women. Young people, or those 10 to 24 years old, showed an 8.4% drop in suicides, though suicide is the second leading cause of death for this age group, the CDC said.
The rise in suicides overall coincides with an increase in suicide by guns.
According researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, gun suicides reached a new all-time high of 26,993 people in 2022, increasing 1.6% from a previous record in 2021.
“While the increase in gun homicides has gained public awareness, less attention has been paid to the growing epidemic of gun suicides — which historically make up the majority of gun deaths,” Johns Hopkins researchers said. “The gun suicide rate has steadily increased, nearly uninterrupted, since 2006.”
Some states — including Massachusetts, Michigan and Maine — are working to reduce suicide among middle-aged adults. Massachusetts and Maine are implementing gatekeeper training, which teaches community members how to identify people at risk for suicide and refer them to care. Massachusetts is also training providers to identify and support at-risk middle-aged adults.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts is working to increase access to and education on the benefits of firearm storage safes and trigger locks, and to promote lock bags, locked cabinets and safe disposal of over-the-counter drugs among middle-aged males.
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