Monday peak is unique to suicide? Comparison of weekly distribution by causes of death using national representative cohort database

Abstract

IntroductionThe excess suicide mortality on Monday was reported in numerous studies. However, it is uncertain that the uneven weekly distribution of deaths is observed among suicide, or common among various causes of death.MethodsWeekly distributions of suicide and other causes of death from 2012 to 2017 in South Korea were compared. Logistic regression models were fitted to investigate the association between causes of death and day‐of‐the‐week effects. We also fitted conditional logistic regression models after age and gender matching.ResultsA total of 1,622,213 deaths, including 80,492 suicide decedents, were analyzed. A total of 16.0% of suicide deaths occurred on Monday, whereas 12.4% on Saturday and 13.0% on Sunday. Suicide decedents were more likely to die on Monday than other causes of deaths after controlling sociodemographic factors in unmatched data. However, there was no evidence of excess suicide deaths on Mondays than other days in contrast to matched death controls.ConclusionWhile the increase in mortality on Mondays was not unique to suicide, our findings have suicide prevention implications. Mental health practitioners should consider providing additional mental health resources on earlier working days. Workplace mental health programs to reduce psychological burdens of employees could help to prevent suicide during working days.