• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.67-77
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• 2020

Purpose : Recently, Korea has entered an aging society due to the steadily increasing proportion of the elderly population. Additionally, elderly suicidal rate in Korea is the highest among OECD member countries. Because old age is a time when all functions are weakened physically, mentally, and socially, negative experiences, including depression and poor quality of life in the elderly, may lead to suicidal intentions. This study attempts to understand the relationship between depression and quality of life experienced by the elderly and their suicidal intentions. Methods : The survey was conducted from January 2 to March 31, 2019 by administering a questionnaire targeting people aged ≥ 65 years, who were registered at public health centers located in U-city, Gyeonggi-do. In total, 1,015 copies of data were used for the final analysis. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 23.0 program. The χ2 test was performed to investigate the relationship between the demographic characteristics and the suicidal intentions of the elderly subjects. The t-test was performed to determine the relationship between suicidal intentions, depression, and quality of life in elderly subjects. Results : The study results revealed that 168 people (16.6 %) had thought of suicide and 3.2 % had actually tried to commit suicide. The reasons for suicidal thoughts were family problems in 60 (5.6 %), economic problems in 49 (4.6 %), and physical illness in 44 (4.1 %). Those with suicidal intentions had higher levels of depression (t=11.712, p<.001) and higher quality of life scores (t=-9.565, p<.001). Conclusion : Based on these results, it is proposed that a suicide prevention policy and program that can improve the elderly's depression and quality of life is necessary.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.254-264
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• 2002

This study was conducted to identify and compare the stressors and coping behaviors of high school students who experienced suicidal ideation vs those who do not. Method: The data were collected from 1,441 high school students living in the middle region of Korea. Researchers collected the data using Adolescent Stress Inventory and Adolescent Coping questionnare from February to May of 1999. Data were analyzed using X2, T-test. Result: A significant proportion (31.9%) of subjects had thought about suicide during the past 6 months, 297 girls (35.3%) and 163 boys (27.2%). Major stressors of subjects who experienced suicidal ideation were academic problems, conflicts between family members, and changes in sleeping or eating patterns. Conflicts with family members contributed to have suicidal ideation. There was no significant difference in helpful coping behaviors between the two groups. The group who experienced suicidal ideation had lower scores and fewer coping behaviors. Boys perceived more stressors and had fewer helpful coping behaviors than girls. Conclusion: It is necessary to develope school-based suicide prevention programs. Our findings suggest that the program should focus on problems related to studying and conflicts within the family.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.524-532
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was done to explore the relationship of social support and meaning of life to suicidal thoughts among patients with cancer. Methods: Data were collected by questionnaires from 138 patients who had been in cancer treatment at medical clinics and 8 patients who were members of an internet cancer association. The data were collected between August and November 2009 and analyzed using SPSS 12.0. Results: Of the participants, 47.3% reported having had suicidal thoughts and 16.4% had attempted suicide since the diagnosis of cancer. The study participants received most support from family members, but 73.3% reported experiencing an existential vacuum. The suicide attempt group had significantly higher scores according to gender, age, level of education, diagnosis, treatment modality, level of activity, caregiver and social support compare to the suicide thought group. Suicidal thoughts were negatively related to social support and meaning of life was positively associated with social support. Support from family and friends and diagnosis explained 50.0% of variance for suicidal thoughts with 36.0% of variance being explained by family support. Conclusion: Nurses should be able to identify risk factors for suicide in cancer patients. Prevention and intervention efforts need to be directed toward improving social support, family support in particular, and assisting patients finding meaning in life after a diagnosis of cancer.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.711-720
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• 2021

Objectives: This study attempted to determine the influence of factors related to suicide attempts in the elderly. Data from a 2017 Community Health Survey were used to find 67,810 subjects aged 65 years or older. Methods: Cross-analysis and logistic regression analysis were conducted by dividing the suicide thought and suicide attempt experience groups. Results: In the group with subjective stress, suicidal thoughts were higher in women 2.748 times (p<0.01) and 1.917 times (p<0.001) in women. In terms of income level, the higher the income level, the lower the suicidal ideation experience. Suicide attempts were 0.708 times lower when mastication was not uncomfortable and 0.170 times lower when the patient was not experiencing depression (p<0.001). Conclusions: The correlation between oral dysfunction and suicidal thoughts and attempts in the elderly has been demonstrated, and it is expected to be used as baseline data for establishing an institutional study.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.582-590
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between suicidal attitude and suicidal ideation of college students and also to provide the fundamental data in order to strengthen both the standard and the recommendation of media coverage in Korea. A total of 249 college students over the age of 18 years in B city and G do were enrolled for this study. The data were collected between June 9 and July 7 of 2014 and analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression with SPSS 21.0. The mean score of a message of suicidal motivation reports 2 was $51.06{\pm}10.55$, which was the highest. The score of suicidal ideation was $10.41{\pm}12.88$. There were sign&ificant differences in suicidal thought with respect to school system, family income, pocket money, time of physical activity, smoking, and smart-phone usage in university students. It was shown that suicidal thoughts were significantly correlated with message of simple suicidal reports 1(r=.303, p<.001), message of suicidal motivation reports 2(r=.251, p<.001), and message of suicidal mourning man reports 3(r=.225, p<.001). As the suicidal attitude have a close association with reports of suicide, it is necessary that studies on a variety of factors influencing suicidal thoughts of students be repeated.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.91-97
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• 2020

Objective : The suicide mortality rate among Koreans was ranked first among the OECD countries in 2018. Alcohol consumption is a significant risk factor for suicidal behavior. This study examined the relationship between the severity of subjects' drinking habits and the suicidal ideation among Koreans according to gender and age. Methods : The data of 113,602 people who visited the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital Health Screening Center from January 2013 to December 2014 were used. The severity of subjects' harmful drinking habits was assessed using the Korean version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-K). The relationship between the severity of harmful drinking and suicidal ideation was compared using logistic regression analyses. We also examined the tendency through p for trend to identify a trend. Results : Of the 113,602 study subjects, 6,586 (5.8%) responded that they had thought of committing suicide. After controlling for gender, marriage, education, body mass index (BMI), depression and anxiety, the results showed that the higher the level of harmful drinking, the higher the suicidal ideation. Conclusion : This study found that, even after controlling depression and anxiety, the severity of drinking could be a significant risk factor for suicidal ideation.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.35-63
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• 2017

This study conducted researches to get related basic materials and grope for a way to prevent or treat suicidal ideation. For the researches, the study examined eco-systematical variables of suicidal ideation of those who are 65 years or older, and the influence of the change in the eco-systematical variables by using the source materials researched in sixteen cities/provinces over the country from KOWEPS(Korea Welfare Panel Study), and then reviewed if there any difference according to whether they had suicidal ideation or thought in the previous year. The analysis result shows that each variable of the ecological system such as individual, family, and social system has an effect on the elderly's suicidal ideation, and there is difference in the influence factor according to whether they had suicidal ideation in the previous year or not. The result implies the policy to cope with the elderly's suicide needs multidimensional approach of individual, family, and society rather than a simple individual level. And also there should be a different support or service according to their situation or conditions like previous suicidal ideation. Especially, it is quite significant that the factors do not influence the elderly who had suicidal ideation in the previous year, but have an effect on those who did not have any suicidal ideation, which means that the proactive and preventive support related to suicidal ideation would guarantee a more efficient and effective policy.

• Journal of the Korean society of biological therapies in psychiatry
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.129-141
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• 2018

Suicide is a behavior that is intended to cause death by itself and requires medical treatment, resulting in suicidal attempt or completion. Suicide causes loss of life, damages the body, costs a lot of medical expenses, and causes families to fall into sorrow and suffering therefore this suicide is a huge loss to family and society. There have been attempts to reduce and prevent suicide by understanding the mechanism of suicide. The mechanism of suicide can be thought of as psychological mechanism and biological mechanism. In the past, if we considered the psychological and biological mechanisms separately, the development of neuroscience now connects and integrates these two. Psychological factors affect biological factors and biological temperaments also affect perception or thinking about the situation and increase psychological vulnerability. Distant factors in suicidal behavior-such as childhood adversity and family and genetic predisposition-increase the lifetime risk of suicide. They alter the response to stress and other processes through changes in gene expression and regulation of emotional and behavioral characteristics. Distant factors affect the biological system and consequently changes in these systems can increase the risk of suicide. In other words, the distal factor does not directly induce suicidal behavior but rather acts indirectly through developmental or mediating factors. These mediating factors are impulsive aggressive and anxious trait, and chronic use of substances. The mechanism of this disorder is the abnormality of the serotonin system and the abnormality of the lipid level. Proximal factors are associated with the onset of suicide events and include changes in the major neurotransmitter systems, inflammatory changes, and dysfunction of glial cells in the brain. A series of studies, including a variety of research methods and postmortem and in-vivo imaging studies, show the impairment of the serotonergic neurotransmitter system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response system for suicidal behavior. These disorders lead to suicidal behavior due to difficulty in cognitive control of mood, pessimism, reactive aggression, abnormality in problem solving abilities, excessive response to negative social signals, severe emotional distress, and cognitive dysregulation of suicidal ideation.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.511-531
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• 2014

This study explores supportive and conflictual network structures of elderly single and couple households and analyzes the effects of supportive and conflictual networks on suicidal thoughts by gender and family type. The analysis considered a sample of 522 individuals over the age of 60 who did not live with their adult children. The statistical methods used to analyze data were descriptive statistics, a t-test, a chi-square test and a regression analysis using SPSS WIN 20.0. The results are as follows. First, men and elderly single households had support networks that were smaller than those of women and elderly couple households. The conflictual network of elderly couples households was larger than that of elderly single households. In addition, the larger the network, the more the conflictual was. Second, elderly single households thought about suicide more often than elderly couple households. Third, economic status, the number of adult children, the size of conflictual network and subjective health had considerable influence on suicidal thoughts of elderly single and couple households. The size of the conflictual network had a greater effect on suicidal thoughts of elderly individuals than that of the supportive network. These results have important policy implications for elderly single and couple households.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.77-86
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• 2021

This study explored the role of perceived stress in Korean high school students' suicidal thought. In so doing, we also investigated the mediating role of high school students' internet use time and amount of drinking alcohol. For this, 2019 Korean adolescent health behavior survey was used. Complex design multivariage logistic regression analysis revealed that high school students' perceived stresss(OR:5.607, 95%CI:5.077-6.191) and amount of drinking(ranging from OR:1.412, 95%CI:1.159-1.720 to OR:2.325, 95%CI:1.928-2.803) played a significant role in their suicidal thoughts. Internet use time and amount of alcohol consumed were found to play a mediating role. Implications of the results are discussed. Therefore, since internet use mediated suicidal thinking among adolescents, it is necessary to develop a intervention program or message for them.