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Scottish Suicide Information Database - Contact with Healthcare Services prior to death

These files present information on probable suicides registered in Scotland, including their degree of contact with healthcare services. The period covered is calendar years 2011-24.

All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found on the PHS Scotland - Mental Health Website - https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/?ic=topics-mental-health&q=&fq=topics%3AMental+health%23&sort=pdesc. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications - https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/forthcoming-publications/.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source Linked data in ScotSID are from: NRS death registrations and 2019 mid-year population estimates, PIS, A&E attendances, Scottish Morbidity Record 00 (SMR00) dataset, Scottish Morbidity Record 01 (SMR01) dataset, Scottish Morbidity Record 04 (SMR04) dataset, Scottish Morbidity Record 25 (SMR25) dataset, A&E attendance, NHS 24, SAS, GPOOH and SIMD.
Author PHS Mental Health Team
Maintainer
Version 1.0
Last Updated October 28, 2025, 12:56 (GMT)
Created February 11, 2020, 10:16 (GMT)
Contact Address Public Mental Health: Data & Intelligence team, Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9EB
Subject Public Health
Frequency Biannual
Time frame of data and timeliness Data based on 2011-24 finalised death registrations. The most recent (2024 calendar year) finalised registrations were released by National Records of Scotland (NRS) in September 2025. PHS then linked in a range of other datasets as they became available.
Coverage Finalised NRS death records of all probable suicides registered in Scotland, including linked records to psychiatric outpatient appointments (SMR00), general acute hospital inpatient stays (SMR01), maternity and obstetric stays (SMR02), psychiatric hospital inpatient stays (SMR04), A&E, and the Substance Use and Health Intelligence Linked Dataset (SHIeLD), in addition to NHS 24, the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), and GP Out-of-Hours (GPOOH) as part of the Unscheduled Care Data Mart, 2011-24
Completeness PHS monitor the quality of healthcare data closely, contacting health boards as required.
Accuracy Quality checks are conducted by PHS. Figures are compared to previously published data and expected trends.
Continuity of data In 2011, NRS made a change to the way deaths are classified, to match changes in World Health Organization coding rules. The new coding rules resulted in some drug misuse deaths previously coded under 'mental and behavioural disorders' being classified as 'self-poisoning of undetermined intent' and therefore included as ‘probable suicides’. To ensure consistency across the data in the main report, only those undetermined intent deaths classified using the new coding criteria are included.
Concepts and definitions "The definition of a probable suicide for ScotSID is based on the NRS classification of deaths due to intentional self-harm or undetermined intent based on new coding rules (further details under 'Continuity of data' above). Full details on changes to the coding of causes of death between 2010 and 2011 can be found on the NRS web archive - https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20240926182103/https:/www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-background-information/code-lists-used-in-vital-events-statistics. As deaths of people aged less than 5 are not likely to be suicides, these have been excluded from the statistics in this publication. This publication also excludes people residing outwith Scotland. "
Disclosure The PHS Statistical Disclosure Protocol is followed - https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/public-health-scotland-statistical-disclosure-protocol/public-health-scotland-statistical-disclosure-protocol-version-22/. The likelihood and impact of disclosure were assessed as medium risk for both, but disclosure control was not applied since none of the aggregated figures present in the output are small enough to warrant this.
Revision statement The inclusion of additional datasets into ScotSID over time will help develop the database to capture a wider range of information on the health and social circumstances of individuals.
Official statistics designation Accredited Official Statistics
Relevance and key uses of the statistics The overall aim of ScotSID is to provide a central repository for information on all probable suicide deaths in Scotland, in order to support epidemiology, policy-making and suicide prevention.
Format csv
Language English
Links

[Hospital care] https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/?ic=topics-hospital-care&q=&fq=topics%3AHospital+care%23&sort=pdesc [Mental health] https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/?ic=topics-mental-health&q=&fq=topics%3AMental+health%23&sort=pdesc [Suicide] https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/?ic=topics-suicide&q=&fq=topics%3ASuicide%23&sort=pdesc