Estudio etnográfico del suicidio indígena en la Amazonía colombiana: riesgo suicida comparado con la población no indígena y análisis del subregistro de los datos oficiales

Introduction and objectives

This article presents the results of a comparison between the suicide risk of the indigenous population and the non-indigenous population in the Colombian Department of Amazonas (Study 1). The comparison spans the period from 2008 to 2016. Additionally, an analysis of the official underreporting of indigenous suicides during the same period is conducted using an ethnographic approach. The analysis was carried out in 16 «resguardos» (indigenous territories) belonging to the above-mentioned Department, which have a census population of 8785 self-identified indigenous individuals (Study 2).

Method

In the first study, officially registered suicide cases within the population self-identified as indigenous (n = 19,000) were examined in contrast to suicides in the non-indigenous population, based on official census data (n = 24,744).

In study 2, the number of identified indigenous suicides in the ethnographic study sample (n = 8785) was compared with the officially registered indigenous suicides in the entire indigenous population according to the official census of the Department (n = 19,000).

Results/conclusions

In study 1, the estimated odds ratio (OR) was 2.7072, suggesting that the risk of suicide among indigenous individuals was 2.7 times higher than that among non-indigenous individuals in the Department of Amazonas between 2008 and 2016. In the second study, an odds ratio (OR) of 3.0258 was obtained, suggesting that in the Amazonas Department, only one out of every three indigenous suicides were officially recorded during the period from 2008 to 2016.