Socioeconomic costs of suicide
Currently, two research projects are ongoing at NASP that investigate the socioeconomic costs of suicide. One project focuses on the loss of productivity that occurs when someone dies by suicide, while the other project investigates the socioeconomic costs of suicide acts, unauthorized track trespassing, and person collisions on the state railway.
Loss of productivity refers to decreased productivity when an individual cannot perform tasks due to various factors. This can include lost work time due to illness, accidents, inefficient work methods, or other obstacles. In an ongoing study, we are investigating the costs to society when a person dies by suicide.
On the state-owned railway in Sweden, approximately 70 people die by suicide each year, and several others sustained serious injuries due to acts of suicide. When an accident occurs, or someone trespasses onto the track area, train traffic is halted, leading to significant delays on the railway. Both the deaths and injuries result in costs to society. Additionally, these delays impact the travel plans of other train passengers.
The study “Socioeconomic costs of suicide acts, unauthorized track trespassing, and person collisions on the railway” is funded by the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket). The purpose of the project is to provide a basis for measures on the railway based on socioeconomic calculations. This is a prerequisite for effective work to reduce the number of injury events (saved lives) and improve the punctuality of the railway (fewer delay hours). In the project, we will calculate these events' health and transport economic costs. The project is made in collaboration with researchers at Lund and Örebro University.