The Epidemiological Use of Hospital Data for Suicide Surveillance in Belgium

Aims: Investigating the E codes related to suicide and self-inflicted injuries through the prevalence, the patient characteristics, the methods and means employed and the characteristics of the hospital stays; and compare them with the others E codes group.
Study Design: Retrospective hospital-based analytical study.
Place and Duration of Study: This study was based on the 2010 data of 13 Belgian hospitals.
Methodology: Based on 16406 cases of patients with a least an E code (ICD-9-CM); Pearson’s chi-squaretests, simple logistic regressions and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to assess the variations between distributions of the investigated factors according to the injury’s groups.
Results: Among all the E codes, prevalence of suicide and self-inflicted injury was equal to 10.6%. The poisoning was the major reported diagnosis. There were significantly more discharges without consent in the suicide group than in the others. The length of stay was lowest in the suicide group compared to the others E codes group. The several median costs were always highest among the men, but, regarding the median percentage of the pharmaceutical products, the value was highest among the women.
Conclusion: The epidemiological use of hospital data is complementary to the use of both the population-based data and the death certificates; each data source participating to a better comprehension and a better surveillance of the complex continuum of suicidality.