• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.21-44
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• 2008

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the family instability on the elderly suicide and to examine the change over time. An analytical model of causal structure was set up with residence, family instability and socioeconomic level as explanation variables for this study. The cause of death statistics and micro-data from the vital statistics for 1995, 2000 and 2005 were used. Family instability was measured through divorce, and the rate of elderly(male and female) suicide as well as the suicide rate of the elderly and those in their 20-50's was used for this analysis to examine the effect of divorce. This study hypothesized about family instability and elderly suicide through a literature review. This paper presents maps of the suicide rate by using GIS, and then ANOVA and regression analysis are carried out to verify a difference in the elderly suicide rate affected by residence and divorce. Divorce rate appears in most areas with a high level centering around metropolises except the central inland area. The rate of elderly suicide which stayed in only specific regions with a high level has increased as time went by, and the graph leveled high in most regions except the southwestern coast. In addition, the elderly suicide rate was increased rapidly in rural areas for the most recent 10 years. This shows the seriousness of problems of the aged in rural areas. Through the periods of economic crisis, a sudden increase in divorce causes family instability, which increase the suicide rate increasing. Divorce affects the elderly suicide rate and the 20-50s' suicide rate in the same way, and the stronger effect goes to the elderly rather than those in their 20-50s'. Regarding elderly suicide, the divorce has a different effect by gender, affecting males more than females. With these facts, we can draw the conclusion that family instability has the most significant effect on elderly males' suicide.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.231-242
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to identify the rate of suicidal attempts, investigate difference of rate of suicidal attempts between students and delinquents, and examine correlation between personality, family dynamics, environment, and suicidal attempts among Korean adolescents. Method: Data were collected through questionnaire surveys. Internal consistencies for this questionnaire ranged from 0.63 to 0.88. The subject used in this study consisted of 922(delinquent : 367, student : 555), using the proportional stratified random sampling method. Statistical methods employed were Chi-square and t-test. Results: \circled1 The rate of suicidal attempts were 10.8%, and the highest peak age of suicidal attempt was 17-18 year old (16.9%). \circled2 Delinquents(19.6%) showed a higher rate of suicidal attempts than students (5.1%). Among the students, girls (43.3%) showed a higher rate of suicidal attempt than boys (19.1%). Whereas, boys (80.9%) showed a higher rate of suicidal attempt than girls (56.7%) among delinquents. \circled3 Those who attempt suicide have more familial problem such as incest, psychosis, depression, attempted suicide, committed suicide, and alcoholism in their family. They also have more dysfunctional family dynamics, environment, and maladaptive personalities than non-attempters. Conclusions: Suicide and suicidal behaviors are multifaceted events. For suicide prevention, independent assessments of variables such as familial problems, personality, family dynamics, and environment must be considered.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.75-79
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• 2017

Suicide is becoming a public health issue in many countries, and even more so in Korea. Korea has the highest suicide rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. To address these issues, we investigated the recent trends in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among the adult population. We used data from four sources: Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, '2007-2012, '2013, '2015), Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS, '2008-2009, '2013), Korean Wealth Panel Study (KOWEPS, '2012-2015), and Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, '2010-2013). Weighted frequencies and trend tests were used. The rate of suicidal ideation as recent year was 5.10% (KNHANES, '2015), 8.95% (KCHS, '2013), 2.34% (KOWEPS, '2015), or 5.39% (KHP, '2013). Regarding the suicide attempts, the rate of suicide attempts as recent year was 0.61% (KNHANES, '2015), 0.41% (KCHS, '2013), or 0.04% (KOWEPS, '2015). Average percent change of suicidal ideation during survey year was -2.80% (KNHANES, '2007-2012), 5.78% (KNHANES, '2013-2015), 0.62% (KCHS, '2008-2013), -5.63% (KOWEPS, '2012-2015), and -10.94% (KHP, '2010-2013). Average percent change of suicide attempts during survey year was -3.84% (KNHANES, '2007-2012), 4.55% (KNHANES, '2013-2015), -2.54% (KCHS, '2008-2013), and -18.96% (KOWEPS, '2012-2015). Those who had lower income level were more likely to have self-reported suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Our results suggest that further efforts are needed for more effective intervention to identify and manage low income strata with suicide problem.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.64-73
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• 2020

Suicidality is the most serious complication of mood disorders and psychosis; effective treatment should reduce suicide rates. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development age-standardized suicide rate in Korea was 22.6 in 2018, much higher compared to other countries worldwide. As mental and psychiatric problems are the main reasons for suicide attempts, accounting for 31.6% in 2018, targeting such problems should be the focus of efforts to reduce suicide rates. However, the ability of current pharmacotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic interventions to reduce suicide rates is limited due to their delayed effects. Therefore, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been proposed as an alternative treatment. This approach is effective for treating most mental disorders associated with high suicide rates, including severe depression, bipolar disorder, and intractable psychotic disorders; ECT is also effective for Parkinson's disease, which has the highest suicide rate among all disorders in Korea. The acute, long-term, and prophylactic effects of ECT on suicidality have been reported in the literature, and treatment guidelines outside of Korea recommend that ECT be used at an early stage for rapid reduction of suicide rates, as opposed to being applied as a treatment of last resort. However, only ~0.092 of every 10000 members of the Korean general population received ECT in 2018; this is much lower than the average rate worldwide, of 2.2 per 10000. Elimination of obstacles to the use of ECT, early crisis intervention involving administration of ECT for rapid stabilization, and maintenance ECT to prevent recurrence should reduce suicide rates.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.60-63
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• 2019

The rate of suicide is the 5th leading cause of death in Korea. Moreover, suicide is the 1st cause of death in from 2nd to 4th decade. In order to treat suicide attempters who have visited the emergency room and to prevent retries, it is necessary to understand the nature of the suicide and to take the right approach. Suicide is more than doubled in women, and retry rates are high among patients with a history of suicide. Suicidal means are throat, fall, gas poisoning, poisoning and drowning. All suicide attempters should suspect and treat cervical spine injury and airway management, and rapid hyperbaric oxygen therapy is recommended for carbon monoxide addicts. Interviewing a suicide attempter requires a sympathetic attitude and examines the underlying depression or adaptation disorders. Interdisciplinary care with mental health departments is necessary, and interventions in emergency roombased suicide attempt management work can be helpful to connect with the community.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.9-19
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the difference in suicide rates between regions and to determine the effect of social workers on the regional suicide rate. The main analysis results are as follows. First, the suicide rates in metropolitan cities were lower than was lower than in other regions, and cities and districts were lower than those in the county area. Second, suicide rates were high in areas with many cultural and social welfare facilities per population. Suicide rates were high in low mental health facilities and low social welfare budgets. The suicide rate in rural areas was high. Third, suicide rates were high in areas with low economic requirements, areas with a high proportion of the elderly, divorce rates, and areas with a small number of social security recipients and living alone. In other words, the suicide rate in rural areas was high. Finally, social workers did not affect the difference in local suicide rates. Local social services and budgets have no real impact on suicide rates. In the future, it is necessary to improve the quality and quantity of community welfare practices that can lower community suicide rates.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.143-152
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• 2014

Background: Previous studies showed that the characteristics of population and regions were related to the suicide rates. This study purposed to analyze the relationships between regional factors and suicide rates with spatial analysis model. Methods: This is a cross sectional study based on the statistics of 2011 which was extracted from the 229 City Gun Gu administrative districts in Korea. Cause of death statistics on each district was used to produce the age-, sex-adjusted mortality rates resulting from suicide. Regional characteristics were measured by the number of doctors engaged in medical institutions per 1,000 population, divorced people's rate per 1,000 population, number of marriages per 1,000 population, and percent of welfare budget in general accounting. Statistical analysis was performed by using SAS ver. 9.3 and ArcGIS ver. 10.2 was used for geographically weighted regression (GWR). Results: In ordinary least square (OLS) regression, divorced people's rate per 1,000 population had a significant positive relationship with the standardized mortality rate per 100,000 population. Marriages per 1,000 population and the proportion of welfare budget in the general accounting had significant negative relationships with the mortality rates. Meanwhile, GWR provided that the directions of variable, divorced people's rate per 1,000 population, were varied depending on regions. The adjusted $R^2$ was improved from the 0.32 in OLS to the 0.46 in GWR. Conclusion: Results of GWR showed that regional factors had different effects on the suicide rates depending on locations. It suggested that policy interventions for reducing the suicide rate should consider the regional characteristics in obtaining policy objectives.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.173-180
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of high school students' mental health on their academic achievement and school dropout rate by using longitudinal data. Methods: For this study, 153 high schools were randomly sampled on a nationwide scale. The descriptive data was collected from a school information internet site which is organized by the Korean Ministry of Education. We used the schools' mean scores on the Adolescent Mental Health Problem-Behavior Questionnaire-II (AMPQ-II) scale which was used for estimating students' mental health in the 2013 school-based mental health screening test. The data analysis was conducted by using hierarchical regression analysis. Results: The results of this study showed that the AMPQ-II scale's mean scores have significant effects on the following year's academic achievement and annual dropout rates. Especially, the AMPQ-II scale's mean scores tend to increase the school dropout rate in vocational schools. Conclusion: The finding of this study is that Korean high school students' mental health states significantly influence their academic achievement and school dropout rate.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.73-82
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• 2011

Objectives: This study is to gain an understanding of the characteristics of suicides committed by university students in Korea by assessing news reports. Methods: A total of 97 news reports on university student suicides on daily newspapers and TV newscasts from 2000 to 2011 are included in this study. Analyses were performed on sociodemographic characteristics of suicided university students and temporal and other characteristics of the suicides. Results: Suicide rate was higher among males than females. The most frequently used method of suicide was jumping off while the most common place was the students’ residence. Issues related to academic and financial problems topped as the reasons for suicide. There were no differences in the reasons for committing suicide by school year and enrollment, but the location and season of committing suicide differed by reasons for suicide. Conclusions: Implication of this study, discussion on the results and suggestions for suicide prevention are discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.143-154
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• 2022

Korea has the highest suicide rate in the world, and firefighters have the highest suicide rate among the professional population. As a result of the study, post-traumatic stress disorder education is essential in all occupations. Post-traumatic stress disorder is the most common disease and the biggest obstacle for firefighters in Korea. Firefighters who have suffered physical and mental damage in many types of disaster sites due to their extreme occupations are rapidly increasing the suicide rate in recent years. In order to maximize the effect of job training, education on post-traumatic stress disorder from new employees to leadership training is urgently needed.