Suicides in the Kyrgyz Republic: Discrepancies in different types of official statistics

In order to develop the “prevention of suicides” component of the state program on mental health protection of the Kyrgyz Republic population for 2017–2030 years, a suicide situation in the country over the past 10 years was investigated. During collecting, processing and statistical analysis of data from different sources, a significant discrepancy was revealed between them. According to the national statistics committee (NSC), in 2015 the level of prevalence of suicide was 6.93% per 100,000 of population, whereas, according to the information from the republican medical information center it was 4.82%. Over the last 10 years in the Kyrgyz Republic, a level of suicidal behavior among children, teenagers and young adults has still been rather high and 22.63% of suicide attempts were committed by persons aged between 18 and 22 years. A significant difference was revealed in the indexes of suicides among these age categories provided by NSC and the ministry of Inner affairs. Due to religious and national traditions, suicide is a very sensitive topic in Kyrgyzstan. In a lot of cases, death from suicide is not registered or is disguised as accidents and other causes of death, so the figures may be considered reliable. Thus, despite the relative standardization of suicides accounting by the separate departments, the further work is needed for coordination and harmonization of the data collection, as well as for development and implementation of inter-agency action plan to prevent suicides at the national level, taking into account the regional, cultural and ethnic characteristics.