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Acknowledgement
The Nebraska Violent Death Reporting System (NEVDRS) acknowledges its partners, including Nebraska DHHS, Vital Records, county attorneys/coroners, law enforcement, local and tribal health departments, and community coalitions. This dashboard is supported by the CDC through the National Violent Death Reporting System. Findings represent the authors and not necessarily the CDC or partner agencies. Data are de-identified, protected for privacy, and subject to revision as records are finalized.
Background
Under Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-605 et seq., all deaths of Nebraska residents are filed with the Nebraska DHHS Office of Vital Records. Deaths of Nebraska residents occurring outside the state are included through inter-jurisdictional exchange agreements.
For suicide deaths, NEVDRS links death certificates with coroner and law enforcement reports to provide information on circumstances and methods. This dashboard includes suicide deaths among Nebraska residents from 2020 through the most recent available year; non-resident deaths occurring in Nebraska are excluded. Data completeness depends on reporting sources and newly filed or amended records may appear in future updates.
Suicide death counts in this dashboard may differ from those in the Vital Statistics Death Dashboards. In some cases, deaths are reclassified after further investigation. For example, a death not initially reported as a suicide may later be determined to be one, contributing to differences between the two data sources.
Suicide Deaths Definition
Suicide deaths are defined as deaths resulting from intentional self-harm among Nebraska residents and are classified using ICD-10 codes X60–X84, Y87.0, and U03. For these deaths, the manner of death is classified as suicide, and the cause or mechanism of death refers to the method used to carry out the intentional self-harm. The substances shown in this dashboard are those recorded in toxicology or death investigation reports for suicide deaths. A recorded substance means it was found or noted during the investigation, but it may not have been the main cause of death. More than one substance is often present, and deaths may involve multiple factors, such as the method of self-harm, existing health conditions, or interactions between substances. Therefore, these data show which substances were involved, not which ones caused the death.
Geographic Regions
The dashboard presents age-adjusted suicide death rates at three levels:
Demographic Characteristics
Age
Results are reported across eight age categories in years at the time of death, including 0-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80+.
Sex
Results are reported by male and female.
Race and Ethnicity
Race and ethnicity are separate fields on death certificates; however, for this dashboard, race and ethnicity are combined into six categories for reporting. These categories include: White, NH (White, Non-Hispanic); Black, NH (Black or African American, Non-Hispanic); Asian/PI, NH (Asian, Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic); American Indian, NH (American Indian or Alaska Native, Non-Hispanic); Multiracial, NH (More than one race, Non-Hispanic); and Hispanic (Hispanic or Latino), regardless of race.
Educational Attainment
Results are reported across six categories for the highest level of education completed, including: Less than High School (attended no school or did not complete high school); High School or G.E.D. (received a high school diploma or obtained a G.E.D.); Some College or Associate Degree (completed some college without earning a bachelor's degree, attended technical or vocational school, and/or received an associate degree); Bachelor's Degree (completed a four-year bachelor's degree program); Graduate Degree (completed a graduate or professional degree beyond a bachelor's degree); Unknown (highest level of education completed was not known).
Data Suppression & Missing Data
- To protect the privacy and security of the data presented within the dashboard, the number of cases or records are suppressed (not shown) using the following rule: (1) when the count is 1-5, or (2) if only one category is suppressed the next lowest category is also suppressed in instances where the count could be identified through subtraction. Furthermore, data are reported geographically down to the local health department level but not to smaller geographic regions.
- Percentages reflect distributions within selected filters and may not total 100% due to non-mutually exclusive categories or excluded unknown values.
- Records with missing or unknown information may appear as “Unknown" or be excluded from percentage calculations. Data is subject to revision as records are finalized.
Age-Adjusted Suicide Rate Calculation
Age adjustment is a standard public health method used to compare rates across populations with different age distributions and over time. In this dashboard, NEVDRS rates for behavioral health and local health department regions were calculated using direct age adjustment to the 2000 U.S. standard population.
Age adjustment was performed using 18 standard age categories (0–4, 5–9, 10–14, 15–19, 20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, 45–49, 50–54, 55–59, 60–64, 65–69, 70–74, 75–79, 80–84, and 85+), consistent with CDC practices.
Population denominators were derived from U.S. Census Population Estimates.
Data Use Limitations
Small population sizes can lead to year-to-year variability; multi-year analyses provide more stable estimates. Suicide classification depends on available investigation information, and some deaths may be coded as undetermined. Suppression and missing data may affect totals. Additional methodological details are available through Nebraska Vital Records and NEVDRS program resources.
Contact
Nebraska NEVDRS Program
Division of Public Health, NE DHHS
Mamie Lush, MA, BSPH
NEVDRS/SUDORS Epidemiologist I
Mamie.Lush@nebraska.gov
Can Ceyhan
NEVDRS/SUDORS Data Analyst
Can.Ceyhan@nebraska.gov