Overcoming Standardization: Revealing Hidden Age Patterns of Suicide with Spatiotemporal Models
Methodology
2025-07-17 v1
Abstract
Indirect standardization is widely used in disease mapping to control for confounding, but relies on restrictive assumptions that may bias estimates if violated. Using data on suicide-related emergency calls, this study highlights such limitations and proposes age-structured hierarchical Bayesian models as an alternative. These models incorporate space-time, space-age, and time-age interactions, allowing for more accurate estimation without strong assumptions. The results show improved model fit, especially when including age effects. The best model reveals a rising temporal trend (2017--2022), a nonlinear age pattern, and stronger risk increases among younger individuals compared to older ones.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.12033,
title = {Overcoming Standardization: Revealing Hidden Age Patterns of Suicide with Spatiotemporal Models},
author = {J. Martín-Pozuelo and A. López-Quílez and X. Barber and M. Marco},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.12033},
year = {2025}
}