• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.312-322
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• 2019

Background: Since 2003, Korea has consistently shown the highest suicide rate among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, and suicide remains the major cause of death. In particular, men are 2-3 times more likely to commit suicide than women, which called the 'gender paradox of suicide.' The areas with frequent suicide have spatially clustered patterns because suicide with a social contagion spreads around the neighborhood. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to estimate the hotspot areas of age-standardized male suicide mortality from 2008 to 2015. The second was to analyze the relationship between the hotspot areas and the regional characteristics for study years. Methods: The data was collected through the Korean Statistical Information Service. The study areas were 227 si gun gu administrative districts in Korea. The hotspot area was used as a dependent variable. Socio-demographic variables (number of marriages per 1,000 population, number of divorces per 1,000 population, and urbanization rate), financial variables (financial independence and social security budget), and health behaviors (EuroQol-5 dimension [EQ-5D], and depression experience rate) were used as independents variables. Results: The hotspot areas were commonly located in Gangwon-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Chungceongbuk-do. According to the results of panel logit regression, the number of divorces per 1,000 population, social security budget, and EQ-5D were statistically significant variables. Conclusion: The results of hotspot analysis showed the need for establishing a prevention zone of suicide using hotspot areas. Also, medical resources could be considered to be preferentially placed in the prevention zone of suicide. This study could be used as basic data for health policymakers to establish a suicide-related policy.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.165-194
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• 2008

The main purpose of this study is to examine the suicide pattern during major holidays which are considered to be in high social integration - New Year's Day, Lunar New Year's Day, Harvest Festival (Chuseok) and Christmas. To confirm suicide patterns, this study hypothesized firstly, the number of suicides would decrease before and on each holiday, and secondly, the number of suicides would increase after each holiday. In detail, this study postulated different patterns by marital status and age groups. Utilizing "Causes of Death Statistics" from 2000 to 2005, the number of suicides by marital status and age group on each day is calculated and categorized by holiday. There are four major findings. First, the decrease in the number of suicides during holiday periods is significant. Second, different suicide patterns by marital status are not found. Third, the difference in suicide patterns by age groups is significant. Specifically, there is a decrease in the number of suicides of the old during Lunar New Year's Day and Harvest Festival (Chuseok). On the other hand, there is no changes in the number of suicides of the young during the same periods. Fourth, a decrease in the number of suicides regardless of marital status and age is found at the end of a year. These results mean that increased social integration is functioned as a "suicide immune system." However, each generation has its own main factor that increases social integration.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.176-183
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• 2021

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to find out how demographic factors, suicide attempt patterns, psychiatric history and management of suicide attempters affect the completion of emergency department (ED) based case management program. Methods : Among the patients who attempted suicide and visited the emergency department of Chung-Ang University Hospital from June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2021, 661 patients who agreed to case management were studied. After being discharged from the emergency department, subjects were registered for an eight-week follow-up service program. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis was conducted with demographic factors, suicide attempt patterns, psychiatric history and management as independent variables, and completion of case management program as dependent variables. Results : Suicide attempt pattern had the most significant influence on the completion of case management program, followed by demographic factors, psychiatric history and management. Those who completed the case management program were significantly more likely to have suicide plans in the future, more authentic in suicide attempts, and had higher proportion of past suicide attempts than those who did not complete the program. Conclusions : To ensure that the subjects complete the follow-up project program and get connected to community services, an individualized approach with consideration of suicide attempt patterns, demographic factors, and psychiatric history is needed.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.233-263
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• 2018

This study sought to identify gender-specific mechanisms of increased suicide rates during economic crises in South Korea. In order to address research aims, we focused on two international economic crises: IMF financial crisis in 1997, and international recession in 2008. This study provides three main findings. First, different mechanisms increased suicide rates during the two economic crises. Particularly, the high level of unemployment raised suicide rates during the 1997 IMF while the high level of working poor in the 2008 recession. Second, suicidal risk patterns for men and women differed at each period. The 1997 crisis which mostly affected full-time permanent workers had had relatively greater impacts on men suicide, whereas the 2008 crisis which affected precarious workers had done on women suicide. Finally, our finding indicated that these gender-specific risk patterns had been derived from the gendered labour market and male-friendly social policy. Placing women at the periphery of the labor market and using them as a buffer in times of crisis, governments failed to protect them from their economic difficulties. Suicide is fundamental and important public health and social problems. These findings suggest that the national suicide prevention strategy should pay attention to the social determinants of suicide through gendered as well as population health perspectives.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2008

Objectives : We examined the effect of sociodemographic factors, cancer, and psychiatric disorders on suicide by gender and age-specific patterns in South Korea. Methods : The study is a case-control study. Claim data was obtained from the national health insurance database and national death registration database. The number of people who committed suicide was 11,523, which was matched with a control group consisting of ten times as many people at 115,230 selected from the national health insurance and medical aids beneficiaries. The medical utilization of the case group was one year before death and that of the control group was from July 1,2003 to June 30, 2004. Four variables-address, economic status, presence of a psychiatric disease, and cancer-were used in multiple logistic regression analyses. Results : Living in cities or in rural areas showed a greater risk for suicide than living in a metropolitan city. Low economic status, the presence of a psychiatric disorder, and cancer were also statistically meaningful risk factors for suicide. The three major psychiatric diseases, schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, and bipolar disorder, were meaningful in all age groups, but the scale of the odds ratio differed by the age group. Only the psychiatric disorder variable was meaningful in the adolescent group, whereas a psychiatric disorder and economic status were meaningful for the young adult group, and all variables were meaningful for the middle-aged group. A psychiatric disorder and cancer were meaningful in the elderly group, economic status was meaningful for male subjects, and address was meaningful for female subjects. Conclusions : Factors such as living in city or rural areas, low economic status, the presence of a psychiatric disorder, and cancer were statistically meaningful risk factors in suicide. These factors also differed by age group. Therefore, policymakers should establish policies for suicide prevention that are relevant for each age group.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.285-294
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• 2015

Background: Suicide is one of important health problems in Korea. Previous studies showed factors associated with suicide in individual levels. However, suicide was influenced by society that individuals belong to, so it was required to analyze suicide in local levels. The purpose of this study was to analyze the regional disparities of suicide mortality by gender and the association between local characteristics and suicide mortality. Methods: This study included 229 city county district administrative districts in Korea. Age- and sex-standardized suicide mortality and age-standardized suicide mortality (male/female) were used as dependent variables. City county district types, socio-demographics (number of divorces per 1,000 population, number of marriages per 1,000 population, and single households), financial variable (financial independence), welfare variable (welfare budget), and health behavior/status (perceived health status scores and EuroQol-5 dimension [EQ-5D]) were used to represent the local characteristics. We used hot-spot analysis to identify the spatial patterns of suicide mortality and negative binomial regression analysis to examine factors affecting suicide mortality. Results: There were differences in distribution of suicide mortality and hot-spot regions of suicide mortality by gender. Negative binomial regression analysis provided that city county district types (city), number of divorces per 1,000 population, financial independence, and EQ-5D had significant influences on the age- and sex-standardized suicide mortality per 100,000. Factor influencing suicide mortality was the number of divorces per 1,000 population in both male and female. Conclusion: Study results provided evidences that suicide mortality among regions was differed by gender. Health policy makers will need to consider gender and local characteristics when making policies for suicides.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.142-150
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between suicidal behavior and patterns of alcohol consumption in Korean adults. Methods: This study was based on data provided by the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey from 2007 to 2011. A total of 42 347 subjects were included in the study, of whom 19 292 were male and 23 055 were female. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the association between patterns of alcohol consumption and suicidal behavior. Results: Among the study subjects, 1426 males (11.3%) and 3599 females (21.2%) had experienced suicidal ideation, and 106 males (0.8%) and 190 females (1.1%) had attempted suicide during the previous 12 months. Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AU-DIT) scores were found to be associated with suicidal ideation in males and associated with both suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in females. Alcoholic blackouts were associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in males, and were also associated with suicidal ideation in females. Conclusions: In this study, we found that certain patterns of alcohol consumption were associated with suicidal behaviors. In particular, only alcoholic blackouts and categorized AUDIT scores were found to be associated with suicidal behavior in males. We therefore suggest that further research is needed to examine this relationship prospectively and in other settings.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.325-334
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• 2015

Elderly suicide rates tend to be high in Korea. Suicide by the elderly is no longer a personal problem; consequently, further research on risk and regional factors is necessary. Disease mapping in epidemiology estimates spatial patterns for disease risk over a geographical region. In this study, we use a simultaneous conditional autoregressive model for spatial correlations between neighboring areas to estimate standard mortality ratios and mapping. The method is illustrated with cause of death data from 2006 and 2010 to analyze regional patterns of elderly suicide in Korea. By considering spatial correlations, the Bayesian spatial models, mean educational attainment and percentage of the elderly who live alone was the significant regional characteristic for elderly suicide. Gibbs sampling and grid method are used for computation.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.202-208
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• 2019

Objective: Suicide has recently become an important social problem. Thus, we analyzed prescription drugs that cause suicidal ideation. Methods: Of 156 drugs on the the Minister of Food and Drug Safty (MFDS) EZ-Drug site that had "suicide" listed as a side effect, 78 had "suicide" listed as a warning or contraindication; those 78 drugs were analyzed using data from the 2016 Health Insurance and Review and Assessment Services National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS). Results: 51 "suicide risk" drugs was identified. Of all patients, 5.2% had received such drugs. The prescription rate was 0.8% of all prescriptions, accounting for 1.6% of all prescription days. From logistic regression analysis, the prescription rate for the drugs was approximately 1.1 times higher for women than for men. With regard to age, the prescription rate for patients 66 years and older was 15.5 times higher than those for patients 25-years and lower. With regard to medical departments, the prescription rates in psychiatry and dermatology departments were 8.1 times higher and 0.6 times lower than those in internal medicine departments, respectively. With regard to region, the prescription rates in Daegu and Jeju were 1.3 times higher and 0.79 times lower than those in Seoul, respectively. Conclusion: Drug-induced suicidal behavior is possible, and therefore efforts are needed to prevent it.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.67-79
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• 2020

The purpose of the study were to analyze the patterns of adolescent suicide attempts, and to explore the effects of personal psychology (subjective depression, subjective stress), health status (BMI, subjective health perception), and subjective academic performance on the types of youth suicide attempts. For this research, data of 'The 15th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey' were analyzed employing a hierarchical logistic regression analysis. The findings are as follows. First, out of 1,731 youth suicide attempts 156 (9%) were impulsive and 1,575 (91%) were planned. Girls(67.3%) attempted suicide more than boys (32.5%), and middle school students (62%) attempted suicide more than high school students (38%). Second, the variables that significantly affect suicide attempt types were subjective depression, subjective stress, and subjective health perception, after controlling for gender, grade level, school type, and SES. The rate of planned suicide attempts was higher among those who experienced depression than among those who did not. In the case of subjective stress, adolescents who felt stressed were likely to commit planned suicide attempts. Those who attempted impulsive suicide showed 1.32 times higher subjective health perception scores than those who attempted planned suicide, indicating adolescents who perceived they were not healthy were more likely to attempt planned suicide. BMI and subjective academic performance did not have a significant effect on the types of youth suicide attempts. These findings suggested the necessity of systematic intervention in Home Economics classes or extra-curricular programs, to prevent potential youth suicide attempts.