The Right Place. The Relation between Living Environment and Suicide Risk in Belgium.

Joan Damiens , University of Helsinki

The relation between place of residence and health is well-known, but very few scientific publications focused on the underlying mechanisms of this relation, especially when it comes to mental health. In the context of Belgium, whose suicide rate is the highest of Western Europe, our study investigates the housing- and neighbourhood-related factors of suicide. This study relies on a high-quality dataset that results from the coupling of the 2001 and 2011 Belgian Censuses, the National register and the death certificates. First, a Principal Component Analysis helped us summarize the 25 indicators provided by the 2001 Census about housing conditions and satisfaction about the neighbourhood amenities and services. Then, Poisson regression models allowed to estimate the incidence risk ratio of suicide for the years 2002 and 2011. All analyses were conducted on the whole population aged 20 to 69 living in Belgium. Results support a negative association between housing and neighbourhood quality and suicide risk. They also indicate that close housing-related elements as well as objective characteristics – for women only – are more strongly related with suicide than the communal services and subjective characteristics. Results confirm an expected negative association between homeownership and suicide risk, and a higher risk of suicide for women living in shared buildings, compared to women living in detached housings; but they do not support a relation between housing overcrowding and suicide. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the relation between environment and mental health and questions the recent housing policies in Belgium.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe