Suicide Related Indicators and Trends in Korea in 2018
10.4332/KJHPA.2020.30.1.112
- Author:
Doo Woong LEE
1
;
Junhyun KWON
;
Jieun YANG
;
Yeong Jun JU
;
Eun-Cheol PARK
;
Sung-In JANG
Author Information
1. Department of Public Health, Yonsei University Graduate School, Seoul, Korea
- Publication Type:DATA OBSERVATION
- From:Health Policy and Management
2020;30(1):112-119
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:0
-
Abstract:
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.
