Suicide Indicator Tool
High-quality data is critical to developing robust suicide prevention programs. The Suicide Indicator Explorer (Explorer) is an interactive, visual tool that compiles that data to assist health agencies in identifying measures for their suicide prevention programs. Users can search and filter measures and sources by many considerations, such as relevant strategies and approaches, and risk and protective factors.
The Explorer can be used to:
- Demonstrate suicide burden
- Analyze the patterns of risk and protective factors for suicide
- Identify data-driven prevention strategies that align with the Suicide Prevention Resource for Action
- Identify data to evaluate suicide prevention programs
- Identify disproportionately affected populations
Explorer Background
The following sections are a brief introduction, full details are available in the Suicide Indicator Explorer Guide.
Development Process and Features
ASTHO established specific criteria for identifying the Explorer’s measures and sources, such as levels of impact and accessibility of the data to all states, territories, and freely associated states.
Once it was developed, ASTHO tested the Explorer. The testers included volunteers from health agencies, who completed a Qualtrics survey and participated in group interviews. Based on the testing results, ASTHO added new introductory and help text to the Explorer.
The 'Essential List'
Considering that it may not be practical to analyze all 480 measures in the Explorer, ASTHO further identified a shortened list of 40 measures. This list, which is referred to as the "essential list," provides users with an overview of the types of measures that are found in the Explorer.
Measures Included in the Essential List
Measure Characteristic Definitions and Filters
The Explorer allows users to view the measures by their characteristics, including risk factors, protective factors, social-ecological model level, populations served, relevant strategies, relevant approaches, and measure expression.
More information about these characteristics is found in the resource, including the evidence for each. The identified risk factors, protective factors, and prevention strategies for each measure serve as general suggestions and may be modified based on different situations.
Measure Characteristic Definitions and Filters
Source Characteristic Definitions and Filters
The Explorer allows the users to view detailed information on the data sources. The sources are arranged by geographic level, demographic and social characteristics, frequency of updates, and first year available.
The Explorer provides information about the source’s sampling frame (if applicable) and instructions for accessing the source, including a webpage link. The Explorer also provides information on including the limitations of the data, such as if data is available for each state.
Definitions for each source characteristic and the accompanying Explorer filters are found in the document below.
Demo and Examples
Demo
Watch this short demonstration video to learn how to use the Explorer.
Examples
The examples below describe one path that users can take to access information. Keep in mind that there is often more than one path users can take to access the same information.
The risk and protective factors used in the Explorer come from CDC’s Suicide Prevention Resource for Action. The identified risk and protective factors for each measure serve as general suggestions and may be modified based on different situations.
Example 1
Watch this to learn how to use the Explorer to identify information about measuring relationship problems as a risk factor among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Example 2
Watch this to learn how to use the Explorer to identify information about measuring sexual violence, poor mental health, and suicide risk as risk factors among teen girls.
Data Sources for Populations Disproportionately Affected by Suicide
While anyone can experience suicide risk, some populations have higher rates of suicide or suicide attempts than the general U.S. population, known as disproportionally affected populations. Public health professionals and partners can use this resource to help them identify data sources, measures, and relevant strategies and approaches for suicide prevention, particularly among disproportionally affected populations.
Explore Data Sources for Populations Disproportionately Affected by Suicide