• Anxiety and mood
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2012

Introduction : Suicide in Korea has increased to 31.2 persons per 100,000 population, the world's highest level. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the world, but in Korea, it is 4th leading cause of death. Therefore suicide is a serious problem in Korea. Many suicide prevention strategies have been proposed. Despite efforts to prevent suicides in Korea, a steady increases in the number of suicides has been brought into question the effectiveness of suicide prevention activities in Korea. Methods : Strategy of restricting suicide methods in many countries was reviewed. Systematic approach to restrict suicidal methods in Korea is proposed. Results : Restricting suicide methods is one of the effective suicide prevention strategies employed in the UK and other countries. Since many suicides occur impulsively, suicide attempt lethality is an important factor in determining the rate of deaths in suicidal attempts. Physical restriction of suicide methods is important in preventing suicide, but restriction of cognitive access to information about suicide and suicide method is more important in preventing suicide. In particular hanging is one of the most common methods of suicides in Korea, it is crucial to develop strategies to prevent suicide by hanging cognitively. Also information about suicide should be properly controlled. To do this, suicide news reporting guidelines should be observed, and website makers whose websites provoke thoughts about suicide should be more strictly sanctioned. Conclusion : Restricting suicide methods along with other suicide prevention plans may be the most effective way to prevent suicide in Korea.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.141-145
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• 2012

Objective : The purpose of this study was to describe and compare trends in suicidal ideation, suicidal attempt and suicide in Republic of Korea from 2006 to 2011. Such data are needed to guide policies to reduce suicidal behaviors. Methods : Data came from the 2006-2010 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Korea National Statistical Office and 2006-2011 Korean Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study Replication and 2007-2011 National Emergency Department Information System. Results : No change occurred between 2006-2011 in suicidal ideation, suicidal attempt, whereas suicide rate increased annually. Suicidal attempt events was decreased in age over 50. Suicidal attempts by poisoning and hanging have increased, although suicide caused by poisoning of insecticide have decreased. Especially, suicides caused by hanging have gradually increased in both sex. Conclusions : These finding suggest that fatal suicidal methods may influence increased suicidal rate. Instead of traditional suicidal process, investigation of other pathway about suicidal behaviors should be needed.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2024

Background: Although Korea ranks first in the suicide rate of elderly individuals, there is limited research on those who attempt suicide, with preventive measures largely based on population-based studies. We compared the demographic and clinical characteristics of elderly individuals who attempted suicide with those of younger adults who visited the emergency department after suicide attempts and identified the factors associated with lethality in the former group. Methods: Individuals who visited the emergency department after a suicide attempt from April 1, 2017, to January 31, 2020, were included. Participants were classified into two groups according to age (elderly, ≥65 years; adult, 18-64 years). Among the 779 adult patients, 123 were elderly. We conducted a chi-square test to compare the demographic and clinical features between these groups and a logistic regression analysis to identify the risk factors for lethality in the elderly group. Results: Most elderly participants were men, with no prior psychiatric history or suicide attempts, and had a higher prevalence of underlying medical conditions and attributed their attempts to physical illnesses. Being sober and planning suicide occurred more frequently in this group. In the elderly group, factors that increased the mortality rate were biological male sex (p<0.05), being accompanied by family members (p<0.05), and poisoning as a suicide method (p<0.01). Conclusion: Suicide attempts in elderly individuals have different characteristics from those in younger adults and are associated with physical illness. Suicides in the former group are unpredictable, deliberate, and fatal. Therefore, tailored prevention and intervention strategies addressing the characteristics of those who are elderly and attempt suicide are required.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.129-140
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• 2023

Objectives: Suicide rate in South Korea is one of the major public health concerns. This study examined the factors influencing the suicide methods of people who committed suicide in Gyeonggi-do, which accounts for one-fourth of the population of South Korea. Methods: This study analyzed the data of a total of 13,945 suicide deaths in Gyeonggi-do over a five-year period (2016-2020) provided by the Statistics Korea and the influence of social and demographic characteristics on the analyzed suicide methods. The differences in suicide methods according to the social and demographic characteristics of suicide victims were compared and analyzed through chi-squared, and items with significant differences in univariate tests were analyzed by multiple logisitic regression analysis. Results: Among suicide deaths, the most common method of suicide was hanging (52.4%). In particular, women, were employed, and stayed at home were higher risk of being hanged. The second most common method of suicide was leaping (17.7%). Women under the age of 30, those with a college degree or higher, those who were not working, time of death (6-12), and those outside the home were more likely to choose to take the leap. The third most common method of suicide was gas poisoning (15.8%). Young people under the age of 65, college graduates or higher, without a spouse, were employed, and spring season were at increased risk of choosing gas poisoning. Conclusions: The results highlight the need for policies that consider risk factors such as gender, age, education, marital status, employments status, time of suicide, and place of suicide in order to block access to suicide methods for suicide victims in Gyeonggi-do.

• Journal of forensic and investigative science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-22
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• 2007

From the numerous social problems generated by the unbalanced social development and the social trend of belittling life overall, we found the causes of suicide getting worse in its seriousness day by day. In reality, the problem has been approached in a collateral level in contrast with other social problems. There have been an active involvement in studying the definition, causes and ways of prevention of suicide theoretically until now. However, different from other social problems, it is almost impossible to treat or fix the problem of suicide. Only ways to treat or fix the problem is when the suicide has ended in failure. Thus, this study intends to examine the suicide rate among the total accidents during the year 2005, perform the analyses on the actual causes according to the relations such as the means of suicide, occupation, age group, educational background, etc. In order to present a solution to the issue of suicide becoming serious each day. Among the total accidents in 2005, the suicide rate came out to be approximately 52.4%. Among the result, 52.4%, male with 69% resulted higher than female with 31%, which appears to be related to the social functions. While men tends to take more active(80%) means of suicide like jumping off, poison, hanging, etc., women tends to take more passive(60%) means of suicide like sleeping pills, slitting wrist, etc. In terms of the cause, pessimism, illness, denial, mental disorder, etc resulted more than 75%, and there were many cases of suicide after exhibiting the signs of depression. Also there were higher suicide rate of the unemployed engaged in direct labor with educational background lower than college level related to the pessimism regarding the family living cost. We were able to determine the recent increase in the suicidal tendency of the educated people higher than the college level and the retired people with depression caused by the sudden change in social status. Overall there are several reasons for suicide, however, in most cases the signs of depression were exhibited until the final suicide, which tells us the serious psychological problem of suicide. Assuming that the current development of suicide will continue in future, the result of this study will guide the corresponding social policies, be utilized in preparing the insurance or management at the national level dealing with the real social problems that are not just a conflict of an individual, but could spread like a fad and become much bigger than the present by the continuous support at the environmental, social and political levels, and be utilized as the basic data to establish the research plan.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.269-277
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• 2018

As multicultural population has been drastically increasing over the decade in Korea, their quality of life needs to be studied. This study focuses on multicultural youths' suicidal issue in Korea. Suicide is one of the most obvious indicators to show the current status of mental health. Unfortunately, suicide attempt rate of multicultural youths was two-times more than that of non-multicultural youths in Korea during the past two years(2014-15). Through the literature review in Korea as well as the United States, this study explores the related variables to their suicide attempt. Research result says that multicultural youth's suicide is related to a variety of variables, including physical, psychological, educational, socio-economical, and cultural variables. Research implications are as follows: First, these variables can be utilized as predictive or protective factors to prevent their suicide. Second, theoretical framework for comprehensively understanding their suicidal issues needs to be developed. Third, both emergent and normal suicidal interventions need to be provided for multicultural youth in Korea.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.261-285
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• 2019

The essential policy of suicide prevention is to continuously manage and treat suicide attempted people through data base related to suicide retry rate and follow-up study report. In Korea, only few people are allowed to follow-up by the Personal Information Protection Act. As a result, the research participation rate and the service participation rate are rather low, so that the research participants is limited to a part of the suicide attempted people. Therefore, the policy proposals to be improved in the Ministry of Health and Welfare Act were examined comparatively in order to increase the practical utilization of the suicide prevention about Article 14 and Article 20 of the Suicide Prevention Act. As a criterion for policy improvement, measures for non-discrimination of information to be considered in terms of technical and ethical dimensions and non-profit research and medical information for medical purposes were suggested. In addition to the severity of the suicide, the suicide risk was assessed and the criteria for the objective assessment of the follow-up observation were considered in consideration of the severity of the suicide.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.51-60
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to derive the residential environment design elements that affect suicide, and then analyze the actual situation in terms of suicide prevention and suggest implications. Methods: The study was conducted through literature analysis, field surveys, and interviews with stakeholders. Results: As a result of extracting the variables related to the residential environment that affect suicide suggested in a total of 18 papers, 15 variables were extracted and organized into major categories such as housing type, health and welfare facilities, leisure and cultural facilities, and living environment. Next, we selected a public rental housing complex with a relatively high suicide rate among multi-family housing as the case, and conducted a empirical analysis. It was investigated that the facilities were insufficient, and apart from the quantitative satisfaction of the rest, various problems were exposed, such as the classification of users according to age and insufficient management in terms of the actual use of residents including suicide attempters. Implications: First, it is necessary to search for the design direction of the residential environment for suicide prevention. Second, it is necessary to find a way to solve the exclusion phenomenon that appears in space and programs. Third, when planning a space for suicide prevention, understanding of the behavior of high-risk groups should be reflected.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2013

The increasing suicide rate is a serious problem in Korea. Because of increased awareness of suicidality as a problem and because completed suicide is the fourth leading cause of death, it is very important to assess the risk of suicide. The purpose of this review is to provide a systematic examination of predictive validity of measures of suicidal ideation and behavior. A number of instruments are described as useful for identifying individuals "at high risk" for suicidal behavior. However, the predictive validity for most suicide measures has not been established. The present review only includes suicide assessment instruments with published predictive validity. In addition to evaluating the suicide assessment with respect to predictive validity, the present review describes and summarizes the psychometric properties of each measure. In conclusion, because of the complexity of studying the risk of suicide and the paucity of well-designed studies, it is extremely difficult to compare and generalize these findings. In addition, only a few instruments, such as the Scale for Suicide Ideation, Suicide Intent Scale and the Beck Hopelessness Scale, have been found to be significant risk factors for completed suicide. Another problem in the field involves that there have been few suicide measures designed for elderly populations. Clearly, future research is needed to investigate the predictive validity of standardized measures for completed suicide, especially targeting elderly populations.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.652-662
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• 2011

Purpose: The suicide rate of adolescents in Korea is increasing annually. Therefore, this research was done to identify the suicide attempt rate of middle and high school students and to identify factors that influence suicidal attempts. Methods: The Korea Youth Health Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2007) was used as data. Discriminant analysis and logistic regression were performed to analyze the data depending on gender to consider the gender difference in assessing the influence of each independent variable on suicidal attempts. Results: Discriminant analysis according on gender showed that 13 factors correlated with suicidal attempts for boys, and 20 factors for girls. The most highly correlated factors were smoking, depression and inhalation experience. For inhalation experience, boys had 2.7 times higher possibility of suicide attempts (95% CI 1.8-3.0) and girls, a 2.4 times higher possibility (95% CI 1.7-3.5). Conclusion: The results of the study indicate a need to classify adolescents for expectation of suicide risk and high danger for suicidal attempts through, and introduce suicide prevention programs for these adolescents. In particular, it is necessary to start intervention with students who smoke, have sexual and inhalation experiences and high levels of depression.