Suicide rates and the association with climate: A population-based study

Lee, Hsin Chien; Lin, Herng Ching; Tsai, Shang Ying; Li, Chung‐Yi; Chen, Chu Chieh; Huang, Chung Chien

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2006.01.026

Cited by 105 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In addition, it is well known that geomagnetic disturbances vary with the season due to geophysical effects [38]. Likewise, suicide rates vary with the season presumably due to sociological reasons [39]. Thus, there will be a statistical association between geomagnetic disturbances and suicide even if there is no causal connection between them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association of geomagnetic disturbances and suicides in Japan, 1999–2010

Tada

Nishimura

Nakatani

et al. 2013

Environ Health Prev Med

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Objectives Previous studies have shown a positive relationship between geomagnetic disturbances and an increased incidence of suicide. The Japanese suicide rate is the ninth highest in the world, but there have been no reports examining the relationship between geomagnetic disturbance and the number of suicides, and, therefore, this paper examines this relationship. Methods The number of Japanese suicides per month from January 1999 to December 2010 was obtained, and it was found that a total of 262,596 males and 102,539 females committed suicide during this period. To adjust the other factors which affect the number of suicides, a multiple linear regression analysis with backward elimination was carried out, with the monthly number of suicides as the response variable and the monthly mean K index value, monthly mean number of sunspots, monthly mean unemployment rate, proportion of elderly people (%), monthly mean air pressure (hPa), monthly mean air temperature (°C), monthly mean humidity (%), and monthly mean day length (h) as the explanatory variables. ResultsIn the multiple linear regression analysis for males, the monthly mean K index value was associated with the monthly number of suicides, but in females, the monthly mean K index value was not associated with the monthly number of suicides. Conclusion In this study, we generated a hypothesis that geomagnetic disturbances may trigger male suicides.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association of geomagnetic disturbances and suicides in Japan, 1999–2010

Tada

Nishimura

Nakatani

et al. 2013

Environ Health Prev Med

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“…Another study in Italy also demonstrated significant seasonal variation in violent but not nonviolent suicides [21] . Thus, the documented seasonality of suicide in various countries could have been driven by the seasonality in violent rather than nonviolent suicides [6,22,23] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the reliance of past studies on univariate statistical methods including correlation analyses, it is understandable that they could not identify the key meteorological factor(s) driving the seasonal association because of high correlations between meteorological parameters in each season. This constraint of univariate analysis for seasonality studies has been noted [6] . The use of the SARIMA method therefore differentiates this study from earlier research in this area.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonality and Climatic Associations with Violent and Nonviolent Suicide: A Population-Based Study

Lin¹,

Chen

Xirasagar

et al. 2008

Neuropsychobiology

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Background: Using 7-year population-based data on Taiwan, we examined seasonal variation in violent versus nonviolent suicide, and its association with meteorological factors: ambient temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, rainfall and daily sunshine hours. Methods: We used Taiwan’s nationwide mortality data from 1997 to 2003, categorizing the sample decedents into two groups, violent (ICD-9-CM codes E953–E958) and nonviolent (E950–E952) suicide, based on the suicide method used. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) modeling was used to detect seasonality of suicide, and the association of climate variables with violent versus nonviolent suicide. Results: The SARIMA test of seasonality was significant for both genders and the pooled sample (all p < 0.001) in violent suicide deaths, but not nonviolent suicides. Seasonal trends show a significant peak in March–May (early to late spring) for violent suicides. Increasing ambient temperature predicted increasing violent suicide rates. Conclusions: We conclude that seasonality exists in violent but not nonviolent suicide rates. Our findings suggest that suicide is a heterogeneous phenomenon and violent suicide may be more influenced by biochemical and chronobiological mechanisms.

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“…The weekly counts of suicides from 2004 to 2006 were treated as a Poisson distribution. Since suicides may correlate with season [12][13][14], temperature [15,16] and unemployment rate [14,17], these variables were simultaneously controlled in the model. A consecutive series of autoregressive orders from the last one (order 1) to the last 4 weeks (order 4) were included in the model to examine the effect of past observations on current ones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%