Exploring characteristics of increased suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan using provisional governmental data

Okada, Motohiro; Matsumoto, Rei; Motomura, Eishi; Shiroyama, Takashi; Murata, Masahiko

doi:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100481

Cited by 19 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Therefore, further study of weekly or daily visitor numbers to various types of restaurants is needed to explore a more accurate causality. The causalities between individual mobilisations and the expansion of COVID-19 should not be underestimated since it is well known that the capacity for diagnostic examination of COVID-19 was insufficient in Japan [ 34 , 35 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Japan, serious and widespread COVID-19 was observed in five metropolitan regions, which include prefectures with populations of more than 5 million ( Figure 1 ) [ 34 , 35 ]. Three of the five metropolitan regions have urban functions spanning across multiple prefectures: Kanto (Tokyo-to, Saitama-ken, Chiba-ken and Kanagawa-ken), Tokai (Aichi-ken, Gifu-ken, Shizuoka-ken and Mie-ken), and Kansai (Osaka-fu, Kyoto-fu, Hyogo-ken, Nara-ken and Wakayama-ken) metropolitan regions ( Figure 1 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Bidirectional Causality between Spreading COVID-19 and Individual Mobilisation with Consumption Motives across Prefectural Borders in Japan

Kawano¹,

Matsumoto²,

Motomura³

et al. 2022

IJERPH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A combination of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions as well as social restrictions has been recommended to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Therefore, social contact surveys play an essential role as the basis for more effective measures. This study attempts to explore the fundamental basis of the expansion of COVID-19. Temporal bidirectional causalities between the numbers of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases (NCCC) and individual mobilisations with consumption motives across prefecture borders in three metropolitan regions in Japan were analysed using vector autoregression models. Mobilisation with consumption in pubs from Kanto to Tokai contributed to the spread of COVID-19 in both regions. Meanwhile, causal mobilisation with consumption motives in Kansai also contributed to the expansion of COVID-19; however, the pattern was dependent on the industrial characteristics of each prefecture in Kansai. Furthermore, the number of pub visitors in Kanto immediately decreased when NCCC increased in Kanto. In contrast, the causal mobilisations for the expansion of COVID-19 in the Tokai and Kansai regions were unaffected by the increasing NCCC. These findings partially proved the validity of the conventional governmental measures to suppress pub visitors across prefectural borders. Nevertheless, the individual causal mobilisations with consumption motives that contributed to the increasing COVID-19 cases are not identical nationwide, and thus, regional characteristics should be considered when devising preventive strategies.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bidirectional Causality between Spreading COVID-19 and Individual Mobilisation with Consumption Motives across Prefectural Borders in Japan

Kawano¹,

Matsumoto²,

Motomura³

et al. 2022

IJERPH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is easily speculated that such deterioration in the psychosocial conditions of individuals would be correlated to increases in suicide mortality ( 1 ). However, unexpectedly, such increases in rates of suicide mortality were not observed in most upper-middle income countries/regions in 2020, with the exception of Japan and Vienna, Austria ( 7 – 15 ). Some countries even experienced decreases in the rates of suicide following the start of the pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In the United States, for example, suicide mortality rates had been increasing in previous years, but actually decreased in 2020 in comparison to 2019 ( 16 ). Japan and India, on the other hand, had previously experienced decreasing trends in suicide mortality prior to the pandemic but saw an increase in suicide mortality from 2019 to 2020 ( 15 , 17 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…“Suicide prevention measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic” was an essentially enhanced program of the conventional governmental “Regional comprehensive suicide prevention program,” since its major activities are carried by the public service corporations, social welfare corporations, and NPOs that have contributed to “Emergency Fund to Enhance Community-Based Suicide Countermeasures ( 21 ).” These findings in the Western countries and Japan suggest the importance of targets for relief efforts as part of countermeasures against socio-economic and socio-psychological deteriorations during the pandemic. In other words, some novel socio-psychological mechanisms for increasing suicides during the pandemic, which were not covered by the conventional suicide prevention programs might have been generated during the pandemic in Japan ( 14 , 15 ), if any, they are possibly heterogeneous forms of national, ethnic, or personal cultural factors different from the traditional risk factors for suicide ( 22 – 25 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Analyzing the changing relationship between personal consumption and suicide mortality during COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, using governmental and personal consumption transaction databases

Matsumoto

Kawano²,

Motomura³

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the early stages of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, suicides did not increase in most countries/regions. Japan, however, was an exception to this, reporting increased numbers of female suicides with no changes in male suicide. To explore the trends of increasing suicides, the fluctuations of personal consumption (as an indicator of lifestyle) and standardized suicide death rate (SDR) disaggregated by age, sex, and prefecture, were determined using a linear mixed-effect model. Additionally, fixed effects of personal consumption on SDR during the pandemic were also analyzed using hierarchical linear regression models with robust standard errors. During the first wave of the pandemic, SDR for both sexes decreased slightly but increased during the second half of 2020. SDR of females younger than 70 years old and males younger than 40 years old continued to increase throughout 2021, whereas SDR for other ages of both sexes did not increase. Personal consumption expenditures on out-of-home recreations (travel agencies, pubs, and hotels) and internet/mobile communication expenses decreased, but expenditures on home-based recreations (contents distribution) increased during the pandemic. Increased expenditures on internet/mobile communication were related to increasing SDR of both sexes. Increasing expenditures on content distributions were related to increasing females' SDR without affecting that of males. Decreasing expenditures on pubs were related to increasing SDR of both sexes in the non-metropolitan region. These findings suggest that transformed individual lifestyles, extended time at home with a decreased outing for contact with others, contributed to the progression of isolation as a risk of suicide. Unexpectedly, increasing compensatory contact with others using internet/mobile communication enhanced isolation resulting in increased suicide risk.

show abstract

Suicidal Mortality and Motives Among Middle-School, High-School, and University Students

Okada,

Matsumoto,

Shiroyama

et al. 2023

JAMA Netw Open

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ImportanceThe suicide mortality rate per 100 000 population (SMRP) consistently decreased before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Japan and then unexpectedly increased during the pandemic. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood.ObjectiveTo identify trends in and factors associated with suicidal mortality and motives among students in Japan from 2007 to 2022.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsIn this cross-sectional study, data on SMRPs among Japanese middle-school, high-school, and university students were obtained from the government suicide database Suicide Statistics of the National Police Agency.Main Outcomes and MeasuresAge-dependent and temporal fluctuations in annual SMRPs, disaggregated by suicidal motive (7 categories and 52 subcategories), sex, and school, were analyzed using linear mixed-effect and joinpoint regression models, respectively.ResultsTotal suicide numbers from 2007 to 2022 were as follows: 760 male middle-school students, 635 female middle-school students, 2376 male high-school students, 1566 female high-school students, 5179 male university students, and 1880 female university students. The mean (SD) student populations from 2007 to 2022 were as follows: 1 752 737 (81 334) male middle-school students, 1 675 572 (78 824) female middle-school students, 1 648 274 (67 520) male high-school students, 1 614 828 (60 032) female high-school students, 1 652 689 (32 724) male university students, and 1 229 142 (57 484) female university students. Among male students, the leading motives were school-related factors (underachievement and worrying about the future), followed by family-related and health-related motives. Among female students, school-related and family-related motives decreased, but health-related motives showed an age-dependent increase. The SMRPs of middle-school male students and female students were almost equal (mean [SD], 2.7 [1.0] vs 2.4 [1.4]), but the age-dependent increase in SMRPs among male students was pronounced (mean [SD], high-school vs university male students, 9.1 [2.4] vs 19.6 [3.0]; high-school vs university female students, 6.1 [2.4] vs 9.6 [1.8]). However, the incidence of suicide among high-school students associated with health-related motives was greater in female students. The majority of suicides associated with major impactable suicidal motives (school-related, health-related, and family-related motives) began increasing before the pandemic. Changes in SMRP associated with interpersonal relationships, such as conflict with classmates or parents, were not significant, but the rates increased greatly during the pandemic.Conclusions and RelevanceSchool-related, health-related, and family-related problems were major motives, whereas the impacts of health-related and family-related motives increased and decreased with age, respectively. Notably, most SMRPs associated with major impactable motives (underachievement, conflict with a parent or classmate, and mental illnesses) had already begun increasing in the late 2010s, indicating that recent increasing SMRPs among school-aged individuals were associated with pandemic-related factors and other factors affecting this generation before the pandemic. It may be inappropriate to uniformly apply research findings based on school-aged individuals to school-based suicide prevention programs for students in middle school, high school, and university.

show abstract

Exploring characteristics of increased suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan using provisional governmental data

Cited by 19 publications

References 26 publications

Bidirectional Causality between Spreading COVID-19 and Individual Mobilisation with Consumption Motives across Prefectural Borders in Japan

Bidirectional Causality between Spreading COVID-19 and Individual Mobilisation with Consumption Motives across Prefectural Borders in Japan

Analyzing the changing relationship between personal consumption and suicide mortality during COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, using governmental and personal consumption transaction databases

Suicidal Mortality and Motives Among Middle-School, High-School, and University Students

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About