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Means restriction for the prevention of suicide on roads

Okolie C, et al. (2020)

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - 10.1002/14651858.CD013738

Evidence Categories

  • Care setting: Other settings
  • Population group: Adults
  • Population group: Children & Adolescents
  • Intervention: Universal Intervention: Means restriction
  • Outcome: Suicide
  • Outcome: Self harm

Type of Evidence

Systematic Review

Aims

The authors state: "Road traffic suicides are common. However, due to the difficulty in distinguishing between motor vehicle crash fatalities and actual suicides, no official figures exist for this method of suicide. Restricting access to means is an important universal or population‐based approach to suicide prevention with clear evidence of its effectiveness. However, the evidence with respect to means restriction for the prevention of suicide on roads is not well established. We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of restrictions on the availability of, or access to, means of suicide on roads."

Findings

The authors state:

"We identified no studies that met the inclusion criteria for this review."

Conclusions

The authors state:

"This systematic review highlights the paucity of research around road traffic suicides and the need for future robust studies that aim to investigate the effectiveness of interventions to prevent suicide on roads. Suicide ascertainment is a key issue; therefore, clear objective criteria are necessary in order to scale up and study this method more accurately. In the absence of any substantial evidence, we advocate for more awareness on road traffic suicides and its inclusion in future government suicide prevention policies. Further research exploring effective measures, particularly those that do not require driver compliance, are also needed."