• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.147-164
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• 2010

In this paper, we reviewed the community-based approaches to suicide prevention and national strategies for the decrement of suicide rate, and made some suggestions to decrease the suicide rate in South Korea. Until now, efforts to understand and prevent suicide have been pursued singularly by specialized interest groups such as psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health practitioners, and private organizations with little interaction between them, resulting in narrow approaches toward suicide that existed in relative isolation to one another and that have been largely ineffective. To decline the suicide rate in South Korea, the people lived in Korea community ought to have enough knowledge related to suicide and have to cooperate with other people. Through these efforts, Korea community would have established social safety networks to improve the community 's mental health. The most important factor in suicide prevention and declining the suicide rate is reducing the stigma and increase the self-help seeking behaviors associated with suicide and mental health. Therefore, suicide is not an individual problem solved by suicidal patient, but a community's problem solved by community in recognizing, managing and preventing suicide.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.287-296
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to compare the regional difference of death from intentional self-harm. The analysis was based on data of intentional self-harm deaths (31,450) from the 2010-2011 vital statistics of Korea. The suicide rate (per 100,000 population) was 46.2 in male and 22.3 in female. Gender ratio (male / female) of suicide rate was 2.07, and Jeju province had the lowest gender ratio (1.82), and Chungbuk province had the highest gender ratio (2.42). In the age-gender standardized death rate (per 100,000) of self-harm by region, the highest suicide rate was observed in Gangwon province (44.8) and Chungnam province (44.3), and the lowest in Seoul metropolitan city (28.9) and Ulsan metropolitan city (29.2). There was a significant increase in the rate of suicide in city areas (odds ratio: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.08-1.13), county areas (1.62, 1.56-1.67) as compared with the rate of suicide in metropolitan areas. The commonest methods of suicide were hanging (53.7 percent), self-poisoning by pesticides (16.8 percent) and jumping from a height (14.3 percent). The methods used for suicide differed between rural (county) and urban areas (metropolitan city and city). In county areas, 43 percent of suicides used pesticides as compared to only 7-18 percent of those in urban areas. In urban areas, jumping was more common (13-17 percent vs. 6 percent). There were no difference in hanging between urban and rural areas. The odds ratio of death by pesticides was 9.86 in rural areas compared with death rate of metropolitan areas. The odds ratio of death by jumping was 0.59 in rural compared with death rate of metropolitan areas.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2018

Purpose: The Korean government has tried to decrease the suicide death rate over the last decade. Suicide attempts, particularly non-fatal attempts, are the most powerful known risk factor for a completed suicide. An analysis of suicide attempt methods will help establish the effective preventive action of suicide. Fit prevention according to the method of suicide attempt may decrease the incidence of suicide death. Self-poisoning is suggested as a major method of both suicide attempts and suicide death. The aim of this study was to determine if a self-poisoning patient is a suitable target for the prevention of the suicide. Methods: This was retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort, which included patients who presented to the emergency department (ED) after a self-harm or suicide attempt from Jan 2013 to Dec 2017. The proportion of methods in suicide attempts, psychological consultation, and fatality according to the suicide attempt method were analyzed. The types of poison were also analyzed. Results: Poisoning was the most common method of suicide attempts (52.1%). The rate of psychological consultations were 18.8% for all patients and 29.1% for poison patients (p<0.001). The rate of mortality in poisoning was 0.6%. Psychological consultation was performed more frequently in admission cases than discharged cases. The most common materials of poisons was psychological medicines and sedatives that had been prescribed at clinics or hospital. Conclusion: Self-poisoning is a major method of suicide attempt with a high rate of psychiatric consultation, low mortality rate, versus others methods. The prevention of suicide death for suicide attempts may focus on self-poisoning, which is the major method of suicide attempts. A suitable aftercare program for self-poisoning may be an effective method for preventing suicide if an early diagnosis and management of psychiatric disorders through psychiatric consultation can be made, and early connection to social prevention program for non-fatal patients are possible.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-3
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• 2019

Suicide is a major problem in Korean health care and a serious social problem. In Korea, 12,463 people (24.3 per 100,000) lost their lives due to suicide in 2017. Although the government has established three National Comprehensive Plan of Suicide Prevention (2004, 2009, 2016), and National Action Plan of Suicide Prevention (2018), the suicide rate is still high. The suicide rate of the elderly is especially high. This is due to the economic vulnerability of the elderly in Korea. Therefore, in order to prevent suicide in Korea, mental health care approach and social welfare approach should be integrated. The intervention of preventing suicide of suicide attempters should include social welfare services as well as mental health program and should be based on community. There are many health problems, including prevention of suicide, which can not be solved only by the efforts of health care. Many health problems are social problems and the integrated approach is needed to solve them. In order to solve many health care problems and improve health, integrated approach of health, social science, and humanities is needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.112-119
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• 2020

Suicide has been a long-standing problem for global public health, along with almost 800,000 deaths from suicide worldwide in 2016, accounting for 1.4% of all deaths. South Korea was ranked first in suicide mortality in 2018 among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This study aimed to suggest up-to-date information about suicide-related indicators such as the rate of suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and suicide death, and its trends by applying sampling weight to make it nationally representative. In this study, we used the data sources: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination (KNHANES, '07-13, '15-18), Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS, '08-09, '13, '17), Korean Wealth Panel Study (KOWEPS, '12-18), Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, '10-13), and Statistics Korea (1983-2017). The rate of suicidal ideation as recent year was 4.73% (KNHANES, '17), 6.96% (KCHS, '17), 2.29% (KOWEPS, '18), and 5.39% (KHP, '13). That of suicide attempt as recent year was 0.51% (KNHANES, '18), 0.32% (KCHS, '17), and 0.15% (KOWEPS, '18). Annual percentage change (APC) of suicidal ideation was -15.4% (KNHANES, '07-13, '15, '17), -2.5% (KCHS, '08-09, '13, '17), -10.8% (KOWEPS, '12-18), and -10.9% (KHP, '10-13). APC of suicide attempt was -4.4% (KNHANES, '07-13, '15-18), -4.4% (KCHS, '08-09, '13, '17), and -13.6% (KOWEPS, '12-18). APC of death by intentional self-harm was -1.25% (Statistics Korea, '07-18). All suicide-related indicators were found to be decreasing in the overall from 2009. Individuals with lower income level were more likely to experience suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Even though suicide rate had been continuously decreasing from its highest point in 2011 (suicide rate: 31.7 per 100,000 population) to 2017 (suicide rate: 24.3 per 100,000 population), it increased again in 2018 (suicide rate: 26.6 per 100,000 population). This information would be grounded on policy implementation for suicide prevention, thus continuous data observation is necessary.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2005

Purposes: The purposes of this study were ① to identify the rate of suicide attempts, and ② to investigate relevant variables(family dynamic environment, personality factors) and risk factors for attempting suicide among Korean adolescents. Method: Data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Internal consistencies for this questionnaire ranged from 0.63 to 0.88. Nine hundred and twenty two adolescents were surveyed (delinquent : 367, student : 555), using a proportional stratified random sampling method. Statistical methods employed were chi-square, t-test, and logistic regression analysis. Results: ① The rate of suicide attempts was 10.8％ for the total sample, and the delinquents(19.6％) had a higher rate of suicide attempts than the students(5.1％). ② Adolescents attempting suicide had a greater dysfunctional family dynamic environment and more maladaptive personality than those who did not attempt suicide. ③ Risk factors for suicide attempts among Korean adolescents were way of coping, psychosomatic symptoms, and parental child-rearing attitudes, in that order. Conclusions: Suicide and suicidal behaviors are multifaceted events. For suicide prevention, there is a need to make an independent assessment of the variables such as familial problems, personality and dynamic environment of the families of the adolescents.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.264-271
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• 2023

Objectives: Hanging is a common method of attempted suicide. This study investigated the epidemiological profile of attempted and completed suicides by hanging in southern Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 1167 suicide attempts by hanging between 2011 and 2019. All data related to suicide attempts by hanging were collected from the Fars Suicide Surveillance System. The trends in suicide cases and the mean age of attempted and completed suicides were plotted. The chi-square test was used to identify suicide-related factors. Crude rates of incidence, mortality, and standardized fatality during the study period were calculated. Finally, logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of death in individuals who attempted suicide. Results: The mean age of those who attempted suicide was 33.21±16.82 years; the majority were male (80.5%). The rate of attempted and completed suicide by hanging were 3.50 and 2.79 per 100 000 people, respectively. The case-fatality rate was calculated as 79.34%. The results of our study indicated an increasing trend in suicide attempts by hanging. The likelihood of death was 2.28 times higher in individuals with a previous history of suicide attempts and 1.85 times higher in those with a psychological disorder. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest an increasing trend in attempted and completed suicide by hanging, especially among individuals with a history of suicide attempts and psychological disorders. It is necessary to take action to reduce the rate of suicide attempts and identify the underlying causes of suicide attempts by hanging.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.31-54
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• 2011

The main purposes of this study are to describe regional differentials of the rate and to explore factors impacting on the regional differentials among the elderly's suicide rate in the Republic of Korea. Suicide data among 16 provinces from 2000 to 2008 were used for the statistical analyses. Six independent variables, such as crude divorce rate, GRDP per capita, welfare budget proportion, number of leisure facilities, number of medical and housing welfare facilities, and number of sports facilities are introduced for the multiple regression analyses. Elderly suicide rate, female elderly's suicide rate, and male elderly's suicide rate are used for the dependent variables. The findings of this study are as follows: Elderly's suicide rate has been increased constantly since 2000 and regional differentials of the elderly's suicide have been existed over time. According to the multiple regressions analyses, number of sports facilities(${\beta}$=-521), welfare budget proportion, and number of leisure facilities(${\beta}$=-219) have shown statistically significant negative relationships with the elderly's suicide rate. On the other hand, number of medical facilities(${\beta}$=0.550), crude divorce rate(${\beta}$=0336) have shown statistically significant positive relationships with the elderly's suicide rate in the Republic of Korea. Finally, some policy implications for alleviating the elderly's suicide rate are introduced and discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.51-61
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• 2018

This study was conducted to propose regional policy for reducing suicide rate by confirming the change of local suicide rate for 10 years from 2005 to 2015 and the effect of change of local environmental factors influencing the change. The main results are as follows. First, the change of city, county, and province suicide rate in 10 years showed that the suicide rate decreased in order of military district, city area, and district. Second, in the case of economic factors, local suicide rate decreased as the local tax burden per capita increased, and as the financial self - reliance increased. Third, in the case of the social integration factors, the local suicide rate decreased as the ratio of the basic livelihood recipient decreased. In addition, local suicide rate decreased as the number of elderly leisure welfare facilities increased. Fourth, in the case of the social demolition factor, the region where the divorce rate is increased, the depression experience rate is increased, and the region where the rate of one person is increasing, the local suicide rate is increased. Therefore, it is expected that the local suicide rate can be reduced through efforts to improve the economic capacity of the whole region, social integration and reduction of the social disintegration phenomenon in the region.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.70-77
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• 2012

Objectives: Identify the characteristics related to the suicide rates in rural and urban areas of Korea and discover the factors that influence the suicide rate of the rural and urban areas. Methods: Using the data on causes of death from 2006 to 2008, the suicide rates were calculated and compared after age-standardization based on gender, age group and urbanicity. And, in order to understand the factors that influence suicide rate, total 10 local characteristics in four domains - public service, social integration, residential environment, and economic status - were selected for multiple regression analysis. Results: The suicide rates were higher in men than women, in rural areas than urban, and in older people than the younger. Generally, although there were variations according to age group and urbanicity, suicide rates were significantly related to residential environment and regional economic status but not related to regional welfare spending and social integration. In addition, the population over the age of 65 years, only regional economic status has significantly influence on their suicide rates. Conclusions: The influence of characteristics of regions on suicide rate is various by age-group, gender, and urbanicity. Therefore, in order to lower suicide rate and reduce the gap between regions, various approaches must be adopted by taking into account the socioeconomic characteristics of the regions.