Lower rates are desirable. Using the available data sources, capturing intention is difficult. This indicator cannot distinguish whether or not the self-injury was intended to result in death (self-harming or suicidal behaviour). In addition, this indicator might provide biased estimates of the true number of hospitalizations for self-injury, due to the manner in which intent is captured in the data sources available. For example, poisoning can be coded as "unintentional"—an overdose—or "undetermined"—reflecting an uncertainty between unintentional and intentional motives. Neither unintentional nor undetermined injuries were included in this indicator, even though it is assumed that a small number of these cases were, in fact, intentional. |