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AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Jan 15, 2009
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April 2009, Vol 99, No. 4 | American Journal of Public Health 728-733
© 2009 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.135160

RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Immigration and Suicidal Behavior Among Mexicans and Mexican Americans

Guilherme Borges, ScD, Joshua Breslau, PhD, ScD, Maxwell Su, PhD, Matthew Miller, MD, ScD, Maria Elena Medina-Mora, PhD and Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, MD, PhD

Guilherme Borges is with the Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria, Mexico City, Mexico, and the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico City. Joshua Breslau, Maxwell Su, and Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola are with the Center for Reducing Health Disparities, University of California–Davis, Sacramento. Matthew Miller is with the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA. Maria Elena Medina-Mora is with the Mexican Institute of Psychiatry, Mexico City.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Guilherme Borges, ScD, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria & Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Calzada Mexico Xochimilco No. 101-Col. San Lorenzo Huipulco C.P. 10610, Mexico DF, Mexico (e-mail: guibor{at}imp.edu.mx).

Objectives. We examined migration to the United States as a risk factor for suicidal behavior among people of Mexican origin.

Methods. We pooled data from 2 nationally representative surveys in the United States (2001–2003; n = 1284) and Mexico (2001–2002; n = 5782). We used discrete time survival models to account for time-varying and time-invariant characteristics, including psychiatric disorders.

Results. Risk for suicidal ideation was higher among Mexicans with a family member in the United States (odds ratio [OR] = 1.50; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.06, 2.11), Mexican-born immigrants who arrived in the United States at 12 years or younger (OR = 1.84; 95% CI = 1.09, 3.09), and US-born Mexican Americans (OR = 1.56; 95% CI = 1.03, 2.38) than among Mexicans with neither a history of migration to the United States nor a family member currently living there. Risk for suicide attempts was also higher among Mexicans with a family member in the United States (OR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.13, 2.52) and US-born Mexican Americans (OR = 1.97; 95% CI = 1.06, 3.65). Selection bias caused by differential migration or differential return migration of persons at higher risk of suicidal ideation or attempt did not account for these findings.

Conclusions. Public health efforts should focus on the impact of Mexico–US migration on family members of migrants and on US-born Mexican Americans.






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