Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- People in rural China with pesticides stored at home are more likely to have suicidal thoughts, a study published by the World Heath Organization found.

The suicide rate in rural China, home to almost 60 percent of the nation’s 1.3 billion population, is two to five times that in urban areas, the study showed. Greater ease of access to pesticides increased the reported rates of suicidal thoughts, according to the study led by Jianmin Zhang from the Zhejiang Provincial Tongde Hospital in eastern Hangzhou city.

“The findings of this study might partially account for the much higher incidence of suicide in rural than urban areas of China,” said the report, published July 28. “The influence of pesticide exposure on mental disorder, suicide and overall health is a very important public health issue.”

China, which has about one-fifth of the global population, accounts for 44 percent of suicides worldwide, the study said. Suicide is the leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 34 years in China.

The results were based on interviews with 9,811 people in rural areas of China’s Zhejiang province in 2001. The researchers asked respondents about the storage of pesticides at home and whether they had considered suicide, particularly in the previous two years.

--Michael Forsythe in Beijing. Editors: Lena Lee, Kyung Bok Cho.

To contact Bloomberg News staff on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at +8610-6649-7580 or mforsythe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 7, 2009 00:38 EDT