Quebec men were nearly twice as likely to commit suicide as males in other provinces surveyed, suggests a public health report released Tuesday.
The rate of suicide among Quebec males was 30.7 per 100,000 people in 1999-2001. The rate among men in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia was 16.1 per 100,000.
"It's not just men, the real problem is among middle-aged men 30-49 years old who have the highest rate and largest increase in rates of suicide in the past few years," said Danielle St-Laurent, one of the authors of a report by the National Public Health Institute of Quebec.
A similar, but less forceful, trend existed among women.
Only 7.7 per 100,000 females took their own lives in Quebec, about a quarter the suicide rate among men in the province. However, the rate among women in the rest of Canada was 4.6 per 100,000 people.
The suicide gap between Quebec and English Canada has widened annually since the late 1970s. In prior years, suicide in Quebec was less common than elsewhere.
Ontario, Alberta and B.C. were selected for the report because of the size of their populations. The western provinces were also included because they used the same process to track suicides as Quebec.
The disparity in provincial rates can be partly attributed to a better reporting system for suicides in Quebec and an underestimation in other parts of the country, said the study, released Tuesday during an international suicide conference.
But the rates in Quebec would still be high even if the reporting discrepancies were factored, Ms. St-Laurent said in an interview.
"The phenomenon of suicide is very complicated," she said. "We don't know exactly why."
Among the theories are cultural and social differences between Quebeckers and other Canadians.
In New Brunswick, suicide rates among francophones were higher than among anglophones, said a provincial government report.
Quebec's rates mirror those in western Europe while those in the rest of Canada compare with Anglo-Saxon countries, Ms. St-Laurent said.
"There is a cultural dimension that is present, but it is difficult to explain why Quebec has increased while it has decreased elsewhere in Canada."
Suicides have continued to rise in Quebec despite prevention efforts over the past 20 years.
The number of Quebec men who killed themselves had increased by nearly 40 per cent between the late 1970s and late 1990s.
Rates among women, however, remained relatively stable over the same period.
In 2001, 1,334 Quebecers - 1,055 men and 279 women - took their own lives. Suicide represented 2.4 per cent of all provincial deaths.
About half the deaths were the result of hanging. Nearly 30 per cent of women overdosed, while 18.7 per cent of men shot themselves. Weapons were used more frequently outside Quebec.
The suicide gap between men and women isn't unique to Quebec. Similar trends have been experienced in such industrialized countries as Austria and Finland, which have the highest rate of suicide.