The suicide mortality rate rose by 3.3 percent in 2008 from the previous year, according to a Department of Health (DOH) report released Wednesday, an increase that one psychiatrist said could be linked to the economic downturn. Suicide was the ninth top cause of death in Taiwan last year, up one notch from the 2007, the DOH report on 2008 death rates in Taiwan showed. Psychiatrist Chang Chia-ming from the DOH-run Suicide Prevention Center said that the highest suicide mortality rate was among elderly people suffering from chronic diseases, with the suicides rate in this group at 36.6 per 100,000 population in 2008. He speculated that the major reason why people in this category commit suicide is because they do not wish to live a life racked by long-term illness. However, the reasons behind acts of suicide are often complicated, he added. Meanwhile, he noted that the suicide rate in the 25-44 age group rose in 2008 by 8.1 percent -- the steepest increase registered among the different age categories. This could be related to the economic downturn as people in this age group are the main breadwinners in the family, he said. However, 'there's no evidence to prove that the suicides were related to economic factors, ' he added, reiterating that the underlying reasons are often complex. The DOH report showed that cancer was the number one cause of death in the country in 2008, followed by heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, pneumonia, diabetes, accidents, chronic respiratory disease, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, suicide, nephritis, nephritic syndrome and nephrosis. Notably, the accident fatality rate fell 6.4 percent from the previous year -- the largest drop among the listed causes of death in 2008. The number of people who died in accidents last year was 7,077, representing a crude death rate of 30.8 per 100,000 population, the lowest in nearly 20 years, the DOH reported. 