Steelesmith Lab
Suicide rates are consistently higher in rural counties of the United States than urban counties. Factors driving these differences include isolation, poverty, unemployment, economic distress, access to lethal means etc. Research to understand how these different factors are contributing to suicide is a key component to suicide prevention at the macroscale.
The Steelesmith Lab focuses on rural and urban disparities in mental health services and outcomes, such as suicide and deaths of despair. This work is typically at the macro level, examining how communities and society in general can influence health disparities.
Inside the Steelesmith Lab
Featured Publications
Collaborate With Us!
Interested in collaborating with the Steelesmith Lab? Email us at Danielle.Steelesmith@NationwideChildrens.org to connect.
Featured Research Project
This project compares suicide decedents based on national death certificate data to individuals completing the American Community Survey from 2007 through 2019. Individual variables include age, sex, race and ethnicity; contextual variables include area deprivation, social fragmentation, social capital, availability of healthcare providers, internet availability, and percentage of veterans in the county. Analyses are stratified by age, sex, race and ethnicity, and method of suicide to explore how factors associated with suicide vary across diverse groups.
This project aims to identify both individual and contextual level factors that are associated with suicide deaths within the rural counties of the United States.
This project was funded through a postdoctoral fellowship by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (PDF-0-130-18).
