No abstract available.
Humans ; *Internet ; Suicide/*psychology/*statistics & numerical data

OBJECTIVETo identify the most common life events that occurred prior to suicide in elderly individuals and the relationship of these life events to depressive symptoms.

METHODSA detailed study considering life events in the year prior to death, the presence of mental illness at the time of death and the level of depressive symptoms in the 2 weeks prior to death was undertaken with the family members and other associates of 304 persons at 55 years of age and older who died of suicide.

RESULTSThe three most common negative life events were acute or chronic physical illness or injury (59.2%), major changes in diet, sleeping or other daily routines (37.8%) and financial difficulties (34.5%). The severity of depressive symptoms was significantly greater among persons who had experienced these life events both for persons with or without definite mental illness.

CONCLUSIONMost elderly persons who died of suicide events had experienced multiple negative life events in the year prior to death and these life events were closely related to the severity of depressive symptoms at the time of death.

Aged ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; Depression ; psychology ; Humans ; Life Change Events ; Quality of Life ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Suicide ; psychology

PURPOSE: The average mortality rate for death by suicide among OECD countries is 12.8 per 100000, and 33.5 for Korea. The present study analyzed big data extracted from Google to identify factors related to searches on suicide in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Google search trends for the search words of suicide, stress, exercise, and drinking were obtained for 2004-2010. Analyzing data by month, the relationship between the actual number of suicides and search words per year was examined using multi-level models. RESULTS: Both suicide rates and Google searches on suicide in Korea increased since 2007. An unconditional slope model indicated stress and suicide-related searches were positively related. A conditional model showed that factors associated with suicide by year directly affected suicide-related searches. The interaction between stress-related searches and the actual number of suicides was significant. CONCLUSION: A positive relationship between stress- and suicide-related searches further confirmed that stress affects suicide. Taken together and viewed in context of the big data analysis, our results point to the need for a tailored prevention program. Real-time big data can be of use in indicating increases in suicidality when search words such as stress and suicide generate greater numbers of hits on portals and social network sites.
Humans ; *Internet ; Republic of Korea ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Suicide/*psychology/*statistics & numerical data

Humans ; Program Development ; Public Health ; Singapore ; epidemiology ; Suicide ; prevention & control ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data

BACKGROUND: Individual attitudes toward suicide are known to markedly influence suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the factors associated with attitudes toward suicide.METHODS: This study was conducted on 3,213 adult men and women living in a province of Korea. After excluding 281 participants because of unreliable responses, the remaining 2,932 were included in the data analysis. Demographic factors were investigated, and psychological factors were evaluated. Attitudes toward suicide were evaluated using the Attitudes Towards Suicide-20, physical symptoms were evaluated using the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), self-compassion was evaluated using the Korean Self-Compassion Scale, and stress was evaluated using the Global Assessment of Recent Stress (GARS) scale. One-way analysis of variance was used to examine the psychological characteristics of attitudes toward suicide.RESULTS: Differences in various factors based on demographic characteristics were observed regarding attitudes toward suicide. Significant differences in attitudes toward suicide were observed based on severity of suicide, acceptability (F=20.332, p<0.001), prevention of suicide (F=7.700, p<0.001), and universality (F=13.741, p<0.001). The duration of suicidal ideation, self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, and over-identification showed differences, as did the GARS and PHQ-15 scores.CONCLUSION: This study explored the demographic and psychological factors affecting attitudes toward suicide. Adequate mediation of these factors is needed to prevent suicidal ideation and behavior.
Adult ; Demography ; Empathy ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Negotiating ; Psychology ; Statistics as Topic ; Stress, Psychological ; Suicidal Ideation ; Suicide

The suicide were analyzed depending only on the death scene and cadaver features but not on the psychological autopsy (PA) that also enables the determination of the manner of death in China for a long time. There are significant differences between PA and the traditional risk assessment of suicide. The goals of PA are to find out the features of individuality, the patterns of behavior and the possible motives of suicide. The methods of PA involve investigating, collecting and analyzing all related information of the deceased. There are many limitations of PA in application mainly due to the lack of the standard procedures. Although an improved procedure has recently developed by Berman, many problems need to be solved before the actual application of PA in China.
Autopsy/psychology* ; Cause of Death ; Data Collection/statistics & numerical data* ; Forensic Psychiatry/methods* ; Humans ; Life Change Events ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Suicide/statistics & numerical data* ; Suicide Prevention

OBJECTIVETo identify the epidemical characteristics of suicidal tendency among middle-school students in cities of China and to explore the main factors leading to suicidal tendency in adolescents.

METHODSMulti-stage cluster sampling method was used to select 9015 students in grades 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively from 25 general middle schools in Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Urumqi of China in June 2006 and field investigation was carried out through "China Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) Questionnaire".

RESULTSAmong the students in the four cities, the incidence rates of suicidal ideation were from 14.4% to 20.8% with an average of 17.4%. The incidence rates of suicidal plan were from 6.8% to 9.7% with an average of 8.2% and were different among cities. 15.0% of the boys had suicidal ideation and 6.7% of them made a suicidal plan comparing to 19.7% of girls having had suicidal ideation and 9.5% of them made a suicidal plan. The two kinds of suicidal tendency in girls were all higher than those in boys. City, age, gender, grade, days and type of being bullied, depression, close friends and having received health education on coping with stresses were factors influencing suicidal tendency of students. Days of being bullied and suicidal tendency showed a dose-response relation.

CONCLUSIONSuicidal tendency seemed common in middle-school students. Training on 'coping the issue' should be strengthened and harmonious environment should be improved in middle-schools.

Adolescent ; China ; epidemiology ; Data Collection ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Students ; psychology ; Suicide ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data ; Urban Population

OBJECTIVETo understand the prevalence and risk factors for suicidal ideation among college students and to provide a scientific basis for promoting psychological health and suicide prevention.

METHODS623 college students at Central South University were selected using stratified cluster sampling and administered a suicide ideation questionnaire, a Symptom Check List (SCL-90), an Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Check List (ASLEC), a Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) and a questionnaire about background information. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to identify risk factors for suicide ideation.

RESULTSOne year prior to our investigation, 14.6% of respondents had suicide ideation, 2.5% had made a specific suicide plan, and 1.8% had made a suicide attempt. The main risk factors for suicide ideation were dissatisfaction with the selected major of study, limited social support, recent negative life events and depressive tendency.

CONCLUSIONSThe prevalence of suicide ideation among these college students was high. Appropriate measures focusing on the risk factors identified in this study should be urgently developed to prevent suicides in college students.

China ; Female ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Risk Factors ; Students ; psychology ; Suicide, Attempted ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Universities

OBJECTIVETo explore the relationship between distorted weight perception and suicide ideation among normal weight adolescents in Guangdong province.

METHODSThis study used the data of Guangdong Provincial Youth Health Risk Behavior Survey in 2004 and 2007. To identify the association between distorted weight perception and suicide ideation, a logistic regression analysis was performed. The effects of age, economic status, mother's education, mental health, and depression were also adjusted.

RESULTSA total of 12 729 people participated in this study, 6096 males and 6633 females. The prevalence of suicide ideation among normal weight adolescents was 13.58% (1729/12 729) in the past 12 months, with higher prevalence in girls (16.15%, 1071/6633) than that in boys (10.79%, 658/6096) (χ(2) = 77.71, P = 0.00). It was common that the adolescents misperceived their weight. Only 44.93% (5719/12 729) of normal weight students correctly perceived their body weight while 43.52% (5540/12 729) of them overestimated their weight and 11.43% (1455/12 729) underestimated their weight. The distorted weight perception in girls (65.58%, 4350/6633) was higher than that in boys (43.39%, 2645/6096) (χ(2) = 993.91, P = 0.00). Distorted weight perception was significantly associated with suicide ideation after controlling for factors age, economic status, mother's education, mental health, and depression. The students who overestimate their body weight were more likely to have suicide ideation than that who correctly perceived their weight (OR = 1.43, 95%CI: 1.27 - 1.61).

CONCLUSIONThe prevalence of distorted weight perception was high and it significantly associated with suicide ideation.

Adolescent ; Body Weight ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Self Concept ; Students ; psychology ; Suicide, Attempted ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo explore the attitudes on suicide and their related factors among university students in Chongqing.

METHODSA total of 9808 students from 11 universities in Chongqing, were chosen under stratified cluster random sampling method and had completed a questionnaire survey through the Scale of Public Attitudes on Suicide(SPAS).

RESULTSData showed that the scores of university students having negative or neutral attitudes towards questions including "suicide is not preventable", "suicidal behavior is not controllable or is caused by outside forces" and "suicidal behavior can(or is used to)affect the behavior of others'" were 34.28±16.44, 35.64±19.14 and 36.94±16.05 respectively. The scores of students taking neutral attitude towards questions as:"similarity of attempted and completed suicide", "negative attitudes on the behavior or on the person him/her self", "positive aspects of suicide and positive feelings about suicides"were 47.38±22.01, 51.78±17.05 and 37.77±18.12 respectively but 70.77±17.21 went to the students who had agreed with "suicide is an important social/health problem". Factors as gender, nationality, religion, history of attempted suicide and suicide exposure to others appeared having had important effects on the attitude towards suicide among college students.

CONCLUSIONIt is necessary to consider above mentioned factors when developing related suicide crisis intervention strategy.

Adult ; Attitude ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Risk Factors ; Students ; psychology ; Suicide ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Universities