The Impact of Celebrity Suicide on Subsequent Suicide Rates in the General Population of Korea from 1990 to 2010

Abstract

The association between celebrity suicide and subsequent increase in suicide rates among the general population has been suggested. Previous studies primarily focused on celebrity suicides in the 2000s. To better understand the association, this study examined the impacts of celebrity suicides on subsequent suicide rates using the data of Korean celebrity suicides between 1990 and 2010. Nine celebrity suicides were selected by an investigation of media reports of suicide deaths published in three major newspapers in Korea between 1990 and 2010. Suicide mortality data were obtained from the National Statistical Office of Korea. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models with intervention analysis were used to test the impacts of celebrity suicides, controlling for seasonality. Six of the 9 celebrity suicides had significant impacts on suicide rates both in the total population and in the same gender- or the same age-subgroups. The incident that occurred in the 1990s had no significant impact on the overall suicide rates, whereas the majority of the incidents in the 2000s had significant influences for 30 or 60 days following each incident. The influence of celebrity suicide was shown to reach its peak following the suicide death of a renowned actress in 2008. The findings may suggest a link between media coverage and the impact of celebrity suicide. Future studies should focus more on the underlying processes and confounding factors that may contribute to the impact of celebrity suicide on subsequent suicide rates.

Age and sex subgroups vulnerable to copycat suicide: evaluation of nationwide data in South Korea

“…Males did not exhibit as clear a pattern as females (Fig. 3c,d) 19,22,25–27 . The greater vulnerability of females to copycat suicide may be explained by sex differences in psychopathological vulnerability.…”

“…Previous studies that compared the copycat suicide effect between same-sex and opposite-sex celebrities found that the same-sex subgroup was more vulnerable than the opposite-sex subgroup 19,22,25,26 . However, one study found that the same-sex effect on copycat suicide was unclear 27 .…”

“…Park et al . performed a subgroup analysis of copycat suicide in South Korea and found that celebrity suicides had significant impacts on suicide rates among persons of the same sex or the same age as the celebrity 22 . None of these studies provided a quantitative framework to assess the magnitude of copycat suicide according to age and sex subgroups.…”

Analysis of suicide cases in post-mortem examination files of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Białystok (2003 to 2015)

“…Ponadto zwracano uwagę na mniej oczywiste czynniki mające wpływ na wzrost liczby samobójstw, jak zwiększenie liczby samobójstw po samobójstwie osoby znanej publicznie, zwłaszcza w ciągu pierwszych 30 dni po zdarzeniu [15]. W ostatnich latach zwrócono także uwagę na negatywny wpływ samobójczej śmierci podopiecznych na stan zdrowia psychicznego pracowników systemu ochrony zdrowia.…”

“…Several authors have also described the effect of political transformations on the suicide rate, particularly discernible in Eastern Europe [13,14]. Furthermore, attention has been drawn to less obvious factors that contribute to a greater number of suicides, such as more frequent suicides after the suicide of a well known person, particularly within the first 30 days after the event [15]. In the recent years, attention has also been drawn to the negative effect of suicidal deaths of patients/mentees on the mental health of medical personnel.…”