Deaths by Suicide in Ecuador : A Quantitative Data Analysis

The aim of the present study was to investigate the profile of Ecuadorians who died by suicide during 2011. The National Mortality Study of 2011 was used in order to investigate the variables: sex, age, marital status, area of residence, natural region, level of instruction, ethnic self-identification, pregnancy and types of suicide. A descriptive analysis, a multiple correspondence analysis and a hierarchical classification were realized. The analysis showed that the majority of the Ecuadorians who died by suicide were men, singles and married, they were living in urban areas, in the mountain range and coast region, they had attended Primary or Secondary education and died by hanging, strangulation and suffocation or by exposure to pesticides, other chemicals and noxious substances.


Introduction
The present study aims to investigate the profile of the Ecuadorians who died by suicide.In order to achieve this aim we used the last officially published data about the mortality in Ecuador (INEC, 2011).
A descriptive analysis, a multiple correspondence analysis and a hierarchical classification were realized.The variables under study are: sex, age, marital status, area of residence, natural region, level of instruction, ethnic self-identification, pregnancy and types of suicide.
The descriptive analysis presents the percentages and the frequencies for the variables under investigation.The multiple correspondence analysis presents the differentiation criteria of the Ecuadorians who died by suicide and the hierarchical classification defines the clusters of the persons according to their common characteristics (Athanasiadis, 1995).
In the frame of this study, we used the statistical software SPAD v.4.5 offered by the Faculty of Humanities of the University of the Aegean.

The Descriptive Analysis
71.27% of the Ecuadorians who died by suicide during 2011 were men and 28.73% were women (Table 1, Graph 1).Graph 9. Types of suicide

The Multiple Correspondence Analysis
In the frame of this study, we used the multiple correspondence analysis that is based on the correlation of all the variables under study at the same time (Benzécri, 1992).The results set the three factorial axes which are the differentiation criteria of the Ecuadorians who died by suicide during 2011.The differentiation criteria correspond to the axes of the multiple correspondence analysis and they are presented in order of significance (Kampouropoulou et al., 2015).
First differentiation criterion (First factor axis, inertia percentage 7.96%) The first differentiation criterion is consisted on one hand of men who were living in urban areas in coast region of Ecuador, they were older than 50 years of age, blacks, married or in a relationship and committed suicide using firearms.On the other hand, there are young women aged 10-19 years who were not pregnant when they died, singles who were living in rural areas of the mountain range of Ecuador or in Amazon basin and committed suicide using chemicals and noxious substances.
Second differentiation criterion (Second factor axis, inertia percentage 6.68%) The second differentiation criterion is consisted on one hand of people who committed suicide by hanging, strangulation or suffocation, their level of instruction was Secondary education, they were singles, mestizos and they were living in urban areas.On the other hand, there are indigenous people who were living in rural areas of Amazon basin, they committed suicide using chemicals and noxious substances, had no attended school or their level of instruction was Primary education and they were older then 50 years of age.
Third differentiation criterion (Third factor axis, inertia percentage 5.39%)The third differentiation criterion is consisted on one hand of people who were living in the mountain range of Ecuador, they were married and divorced and their level of instruction was Higher education.On the other hand, there are people who were living in the Coast region, they were in relationship, committed suicide using pesticides, they were blacks, women and separated.

The Hierarchical Classification
The method of hierarchical classification was used aiming to a classification of Ecuadorians who died by suicide during 2011 (Kampouropoulou et al., 2014).This method offers the advantage of representing the centroids of the clusters on the factor levels looking for a detailed interpretation of the differences between the groups (Martin, 2008).The hierarchical classification led to the formation of seven clusters which are presented in Figure 1 (Kampouropoulou et al., 2011).The first cluster consists of people who committed suicide by hanging, strangulation or suffocation, their level of instruction was Secondary education and they were singles.
Second cluster (47 deaths, 5.11% of the sample) The second cluster consists of afro-ecuadorians who were living in Coast region and committed suicide with firearms.
Third cluster (313 deaths, 34.06% of the sample) The third cluster consists of men aged 20-39 years who were mestizos and singles, their level of instruction was Secondary education and the majority of them committed suicide by hanging, strangulation or suffocation.
Fourth cluster (167 deaths, 18.17% of the sample) The fourth cluster consists of married and divorced men aged 40-69 years whose level of instruction was Primary and Higher education and they were living in urban areas.
Fifth cluster (48 deaths, 5.22% of the sample) The fifth cluster consists of widowed people older than 60 years of age who were living in Coast region.
Sixth cluster (106 deaths, 11.53% of the sample) The sixth cluster consists of indigenous people who were living in rural areas of Amazon basin, they committed suicide using chemicals, noxious substances and pesticides and they had no attended school or their level of instruction was Primary education.
Seventh cluster (143 deaths, 15.56% of the sample) The seventh cluster consists of young women aged 10-19 years, singles, who were living in the mountain range of Ecuador and their level of instruction was Secondary education.
These differentiations are presented in Figure 2 where the centroids of the seven clusters are presented on the level of the first two axes.The positions of the clusters regarding to the two axes present the differences and the similarities of the characteristics demonstrated in each cluster (Stefos et al., 2005).
Figure 2. The Correspondence Analysis

Conclusion
The aim of the present study was to investigate the profile of Ecuadorians who died by suicide during 2011.We used the National Mortality Study of 2011 and investigated the variables: sex, age, marital status, area of residence, natural region, level of instruction, ethnic self-identification, pregnancy and types of suicide (Stefos & Papapostolou, 2013).
The results of the descriptive analysis are confirmed by the multiple correspondence analysis and the hierarchical classification (Morineau, 1984).
The analysis of the data showed that the majority (71.27%) of the Ecuadorians who died by suicide during 2011 were men.
71.16% were persons between the ages of 10 and 39 years.51.25% were singles.The majority (67.90%) of the Ecuadorians who died by suicide were living in urban areas.90.42% were living in the mountain range and coast region.
79.76% had attended Primary or Secondary education.88.57% died by hanging, strangulation and suffocation or by exposure to pesticides, other chemicals and noxious substances (Stefos et al., 2011).

Table 4
65% of these people were living in the mountain range of Ecuador, 36.78% in coast region, 9.25% in Amazon basin and 0.22% in insular region (Table5, Graph 5).

Table 7
22% of the Ecuadorians who died by suicide during 2011 died of exposure to non-narcotic analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics, 0.11% of exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics (hallucinogens), 0.87% of exposure to other drugs, medicaments and biological substances, 1.96% of exposure to alcohol.0.11% of exposure to other gases and vapors, 13.28% of exposure to pesticides, 22.96% of exposure to other chemicals and noxious substances, 52.34% died by hanging, strangulation or suffocation, 0.11% by rifle, shotgun and larger firearm, 5.22% by other firearms, 0.11% by smoke, fire and flames, 0.22% by sharp object, 0.22% by jumping from a high place and 2.29% by unspecified means (Table9, Graph 9).