The general objective of the study was to analyse the data recorded on Form 104. The primary reason for expanding the form was to know more about the profile of individuals who died by suicide. Consequently, it was a specific objective of the study to judge how the expanded Form 104 performed as a mechanism for routinely collecting sociodemographic and psychosocial data on individuals whose deaths led to an inquest and particularly on those who died by suicide. The study did not aim to quantify the extent to which suicide deaths had been misclassified as other causes of death. Such an aim would have required a broader and more extensive examination of the death registration and cause of death classification system.

The study focused on inquested deaths that occurred in 2002 and were registered in either 2002, 2003 or 2004. While data relating to these inquested deaths were analysed, particular attention was paid to the data relating to suicide deaths as this was the focus of the National Task Force on Suicide and of both agencies that commissioned the work – the National Suicide Review Group and, since September 2005, the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention.