Background: When one intends to globally smooth unstable rates, e.g.,
suicide rates in a region, one needs to consider whether it is better to smooth the rates
toward the global mean of the country or toward the global mean of the same region.
Aims: The present study aims to provide a methodological framework to answer
this question by smoothing suicide rates within London boroughs. Methods:
Based on the results of the spatial autocorrelation statistics, the noniterative empirical
Bayes method of moments was chosen to globally smooth the suicide rate of each borough, first
toward the global mean of England and Wales, and second toward the mean of the London region.
Results: The results revealed that smoothing the suicide rates of the
boroughs toward the global mean of England and Wales had a stronger influence in reducing the
variability of suicide rates than smoothing toward the global mean of the London region.
Conclusions: Smoothing the rates toward the mean of a region within a country
acts somewhat between global and local smoothing.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Category Research Trends
- Pages 1-6
- DOI 10.1027/0227-5910/a000085
- Authors
- Mohsen Rezaeian, Social Medicine Department, Rafsanjan Medical School, Rafsanjan,
Iran - Graham Dunn, Biostatistics Group, School of Community Based Medicine, The University of
Manchester, UK - Selwyn St Leger, Retired, formerly University of Manchester, UK
- Louis Appleby, School of Community Based Medicine, The University of Manchester,
UK
- Mohsen Rezaeian, Social Medicine Department, Rafsanjan Medical School, Rafsanjan,
- Journal Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention
- Online ISSN 2151-2396
- Print ISSN 0227-5910