[Factors associated with self-reporting of mental and emotional well-being in men in ChileFatores associados ao autorrelato de bem-estar mental ou emocional entre homens no Chile]

[Changes in suicide mortality trends in Chile, 1997-2018]

Using information from the mortality database at Chile's Department of Statistics and Health Information (Ministry of Health), an ecological time-series study was conducted to determine changing trends in suicide rates by sex and age group in Chile from 1997 to 2018. Results show that the mortality rate for men in 2018 was 20.1 per 100,000, almost five times higher than the rate for women. Trends in both sexes show a decrease in aver-age annual percent change of -5.4% [CI95% (-12.9; 1.9)] between 2009 and 2013. Over the same period, the average annual percent change for men was -5.8% [CI95% (-12.5; 2.3)], while for women it was -4.0 [CI95% (-5.8; -2.2)] between 2008 and 2018. No changes have been observed in trends for men aged 60 and over, the group with the high-est rates. Although suicide rates declined following the implementation of policies focus-ing on risk factors for suicide, it is necessary to evaluate the implementation of these pol-icies and devise similar actions geared toward populations with greater risk of suicide.

Sleep problems are related to commuting accidents rather than to workplace accidents

Background

This study aimed to verify the relationships between sleep problems and both commuting and workplace accidents in workers of both sexes.

Methods

The study was carried out with a sample of workers (n = 2993; 50.2% female) from the Chilean Quality of Life Survey (ENCAVI) 2015–2016, while the rates of both workplace and commuting accidents were extracted from the statistics of the Superintendence of Social Security (SUSESO 2015; 180,036 and 52,629 lost-time accidents, respectively).

Results

Chilean workers sleep less than the rest of the people in the country (M_W = 7.14 vs. M_O = 7.33; t (6789) = − 5.19; p < .001), while the Chilean people as a whole sleep less compared to those of other countries (7.24 h per day). Likewise, it was found that sleep problems are more strongly related to commuting than to workplace accidents. In this vein, sleep quantity can explain 24% of the variance in commuting accidents’ rates (Stepwise Method; R² = .30, F (1.14) = 5.49, p < .05; β = −.55, p < .05), by using aggregated data with all types of commuting roles (driver of a vehicle, a passenger of public or private transport, or as a pedestrian).

Conclusions

Our findings show that sleep quantity has a more robust relationship with commuting than workplace accidents, a neglected issue so far. Future prevention programs should emphasize sleep hygiene and focus on commuting to and from work.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-10737-5.