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Among the Korean elderly (those 65 years of age and older), the suicide rate is 80.3/100 000 people, which is ten times higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average. Because South Korea is rapidly becoming an aging population, this high elderly suicidal rate will only get worse. Although the size of the elderly suic...
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Very little research has described risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt among transgender youth using high-quality, nationally representative data. We aimed to assess risk of suicidality among transgender and sexual minority adolescents in Canada.
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Citations
... Overall, six studies investigated the relationship between occupation and suicide attempts [30,36,38,56,57,63]. Unemployment was significantly associated, directly or indirectly by intensifying anxious or depressed mood, with attempted suicides [36,38,63]. ...
... Overall, six studies investigated the relationship between occupation and suicide attempts [30,36,38,56,57,63]. Unemployment was significantly associated, directly or indirectly by intensifying anxious or depressed mood, with attempted suicides [36,38,63]. The association between employment status and suicide attempts was found to be more salient in men and is dependent on age, with strongest associations among men in the age-group between 19 and 44, and inverted associations among the elderly. ...
... Six studies examined the influence of income. All of these studies elaborated that a low household income was significantly associated, directly or indirectly, with suicide attempts [28,36,38,41,53,63]. These results mostly agree with the findings of suicidal ideation. ...
Background
The economic and human costs of suicide to individuals, families, communities, and society make suicide a major public health problem around the world. Suicide rates in South Korea are among the highest in the world. This paper is the first systematic review investigating socioeconomic risk factors for suicidal behaviors (suicidal ideation, attempted suicides, and completed suicides) in South Korea.
Methods
We performed a systematic review in Medline and Web of Science. Empirical studies and peer-reviewed articles on the association between individual socioeconomic factors and suicidal behaviors have been included. A total of 53 studies were included in a descriptive synthesis.
Results
Overall, 35 studies focused on the association between individual socioeconomic factors and suicidal ideation, 16 were related to suicide attempts, while 10 addressed completed suicides. Low income, unemployment, and financial difficulties were identified as risk factors for all suicidal behaviors. Working in precarious conditions, long working hours, self-employment, changes in employment status, shift work/night-time work, and occupational stress were associated with an increased risk for suicidal ideation. Low educational attainment appears to increase the risk for suicide attempts and completed suicide, but the significance of educational attainment on the reporting of suicidal ideation could not be verified. The primary studies were unable to ascertain whether the place of residence impacts on suicidal behaviors.
Conclusions
The results highlight the relevance of socioeconomic factors for suicidal behaviors in South Korea. Governmental social spending must be increased and redirected more efficiently so that the economically most vulnerable groups are financially protected and income inequality does not widen. Furthermore, comprehensive prevention strategies at the community level are needed. Future research needs to focus on identifying vulnerable groups for whom the effects of low socioeconomic status may have particularly serious consequences with regard to suicidal behaviors.
... Some research reported the significant association of age with suicidal ideation with 75-years or older greatly affected by suicidal ideation. 6,8,9 On the contrary, another study found that the younger age group (65---69 years old) is prone to have suicidal ideation compared to those in the oldest-old age group (80 years and older). 4 Moreover, there is a conflicting result of the relationship between gender and suicidal ideation. ...
... The finding was following the findings obtained in previous studies that reported marital status is related to suicidal ideation. 9,10 In the present study, 92.5% of the participants were married. This finding was congruent with the previous study that reported the majority of the suicide victims with suicidal ideation were married. 2 It could be implied that despite being married, older people might be suffering from an unhappy marriage. ...
This study aimed to determine the prevalence of suicidal ideation and the associated factors with suicidal ideation among older people. This was a cross-sectional study. The present study was carried out from March 2018 to May 2018. In total, 200 older people aged 60 years and over were recruited from a medical outpatient clinic in Malaysia. The older people completed a self-administered questionnaire on sociodemographic background, depression, and suicidal ideation. The data analysis involved descriptive and inferential analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics version 23.0. The prevalence rate of suicidal ideation was 3%. There were significant associations between ethnicity (p < 0.00), marital status (p = 0.008), depression (p < 0.00) and suicidal ideation. Risk factors for suicidal ideation in older people are ethnicity, marital status, and depression. Future studies should focus on these factors in any intervention aimed to reduce suicidal ideation among older people in Malaysia.
... Consistent stressful situations might make people depressed and reduce their self-efficacy. Mental health problems such as depression are linked to suicidal ideation and suicide attempts [29,30]. In 2017, the National Survey of Older Koreans showed that the most important reason for suicidal ideation was economic problems (27.7%) ...
Objectives:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between the Basic Old-Age Pension (BOP), which is a noncontributory pension, and depression in BOP beneficiaries in Korea.
Methods:
We used the second and third waves (2007-2008) of the Korea Welfare Panel Study to identify the effect of the BOP on mental health in the year of its introduction. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale, applied in a Korean context, was used to evaluate mental health. To analyze the effect of the BOP, a difference-in-difference approach was used in analyses of all subjects and subgroups.
Results:
For this study population of 760 adults, the BOP did not have a statistically significant relationship with depression in its beneficiaries. After controlling for type of household, the BOP was still not associated with lower reporting of depression, either in single-beneficiary or double-beneficiary households, in the year of the benefit.
Conclusions:
The BOP policy had no significant relationship with the level of depression among recipients. However, this should not be interpreted as implying that income subsidy programs for older adults, such as the BOP, do not affect mental health, considering the importance of economic hardship in this population and the program's socioeconomic effects.
... Given the seriousness and damaging nature of suicide, numerous studies have been conducted on the characteristics of and factors affecting suicide [5][6][7][8][9][10][11], but most of these studies have been conducted at the individual level. However, regional differences in suicide rates may be significant within a country; in South Korea in 2013, it was reported that the polarization of age-standardized suicide mortality rates by boroughs (si, gun, gu) is severe [12]. ...
South Korea’s suicide rate has remained among the highest in the world for some years, and there is also a gap in suicide rates among regions within the country. This study investigates the differences in years of life lost (YLLs) due to suicide in 250 districts and the factors associated with regional YLLs in South Korea in 2016. The relationships between YLLs due to suicide by region and factors such as population characteristics, health behaviors, socioeconomic factors, and mental health resources in the community were examined through multiple linear regression analysis. The gap between districts with the highest and lowest YLL due to suicide per 100,000 people was more than a 7-times difference. Factors related to YLLs due to suicide by region were physical activity rates and community mental healthcare centers, and there were differences in these factors according to gender. In conclusion, to prevent suicide at the community level, it is necessary to consider gender in establishing intervention strategies. The community needs to play an active role in promoting mental health and reducing suicide among local residents and to continue to invest in the support and management of those at high risk of suicide.
... Determinants and Causes of Suicide Studies have differing results in pinpointing the main determinants affecting elderly, but they are not that far off. Based on a national data survey conducted in 2009, Ro et al. (2015) found that depression is the number one factor, while other suicide attempts are mostly based on the settings and traits of the person. Meanwhile, according to Chan (2006), there was a sudden increase in elderly suicide during 1998, especially during 2002 to 2004. ...
... In South Korea, studies examining the association between suicidal ideation and physical activity mostly targeted adolescents (Cho, 2014;Jeon et al., 2017;Lee et al., 2013;Lee and Lee, 2015). Some studies have shown an association between physical activity and suicidal ideation in adults (Ro et al., 2015;Song and Lee, 2016). However, physical activity was included as one of many risk factors, and, unlike previous adolescent studies, most of the adult studies did not focus specifically on physical activity. ...
Background:
Suicide is a critical complication of psychiatric disorders. Physical activity has a positive effect on mental health; however, its effects on suicidal ideation have received little attention compared to other psychiatric symptoms.
Methods:
Data were obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2014. Suicidal ideation was measured by the ninth item of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Physical activity was measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and categorized into three groups by activity level. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed for the entire sample, men, and women. The following three models were used: Model 1 (adjusted for sociodemographic and health-related variables), Model 2 (additionally adjusted for subjective body image), and Model 3 (additionally adjusted for diagnosed depression).
Results:
Compared to the low IPAQ group, the moderate IPAQ group was significantly associated with decreased suicidal ideation in Model 3 for the entire sample (OR, 0.733; 95% CI, 0.538–0.999) and in all models for women. However, the high IPAQ group showed no significant association. None of the IPAQ groups showed significant associations in men.
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study. Therefore, the direction of causality cannot be determined. This study also investigated suicidal ideation over the past two weeks, which may be inconsistent with studies conducted over the past year.
Conclusions:
The beneficial relationship between physical activity and suicidal ideation is weaker in men and individuals with high activity levels. Detailed guidelines on physical activity according to gender and activity level are recommended.
... With the increasing number of older adults who live separately from their children, there are growing concerns about older adults' well-being. To give an extreme example, 80.3 per 100,000 Korean older adults took their own lives in 2009, which was the highest rate among OECD countries, about 10 times higher than the OECD average (Ro et al. 2015). Although living alone causes greater depression and lower self-esteem among older adults (Do and Malhotra 2012), interactions with noncoresident children, for example, through visits and phone calls, are known to help older adults feel loved, cared for, and valued (e.g., Lawton et al. 1994). ...
Despite its significant policy implications, little is known about the impact working hours have on how often workers visit their elderly parents. Evidence is particularly lacking on men’s overtime work and workers in Asia. We examine the causal impact of male workers’ working times on parental visits, using a natural experiment to eliminate potential endogeneity bias. In 2004, the Korean government began reducing its legal workweek from 44 to 40 h, gradually expanding it from larger to smaller establishments by 2011. Using annual longitudinal data from the 2005 to 2014 Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (N = 7005 person-waves), we estimated an instrumental variable (IV) fixed-effects (FE) regression model. Our IV was an indicator variable of whether an individual full-time worker’s legal workweek was reduced to 40 h in a given year. The results showed that working one additional hour a week lowered the frequency of visits by 6.5% (95% confidence interval [− 13.0%, 0.0%]), which was not apparent in a FE model without the IV. Working long hours has implications for workers’ interactions with their elderly parents, and the failure to consider endogeneity in actual working hours may understate the negative effect. Reducing work hours may serve as an effective policy intervention for improving the well-being of older adults in rapidly aging Asian countries in a work-oriented and family-centered culture. We also highlight the need for further attention to men’s work hours, which are often considered much less important than women’s work status in population research on intergenerational support.
... Good social support may help reduce the risk of suicidal behavior. [35][36][37] Because of continuous improvements in the medical security system in China, rapid economic development, and good social support, the death rate from suicide was reduced from 10.79/10 million in 2000 to 6.79/ 10 million in 2014. However, during the period of 2000 to 2014, the rate of suicide mortality exhibited a zigzag pattern with the highest rate of suicide mortality occurring in 2002. ...
Suicide is one of the top 10 causes of death in many countries. Although there are many studies on mental disorders, few studies have examined mortality in suicide population and mentally ill population. This study examined the association between mortality and mental disorders using data on suicides and mental disorders in China. Data from China's Health and Family Planning Statistical Yearbook for 2000 to 2014 were used to analyze the relationship between mortality associated with suicide and mental disorders. The analyses found that mortality among people with mental disorders dropped from 5.42/10 million in 2000 to 2.68/10 million in 2014, decreased more among females than males, and differed between urban and rural areas; that suicide mortality dropped from 10.79/10 million in 2000 to 6.79/10 million in 2014; the decrease was greater in women than in men, with suicide being highest among male residents of cities; and no significant correlation was found between mortality among persons with mental disorders and suicide mortality. There was no correlation between suicide mortality and mental-disorder mortality during 2000 to 2014; however, overall mortality decreased more among females than males during this period.
... As the burden due to suicide increased, suicide became a major health issue in South Korea [3]. While suicide may be associated with biological, behavioral, physical, socio- cultural, and environmental factors, mental illness (including depression, bipolar disease, schizophrenia, and others) is the main cause of suicide [4][5][6]. Nevertheless, while the link between suicide and mental illness is well established, studies have yet to thoroughly investi- gate whether ocular diseases are linked with suicide. Dry eye disease (DED) is one of the most frequently encountered ocular morbidities world- wide. ...
... Depression can also affect an individual to think about suicide. For example, impaired health behavior and low physical health status can cause suicidal idea- tion through depressive symptoms [5]. In light of the findings in our study, we suggest that depression may act as a mediator between DED and suicidal ideation. ...
Purpose
This study assessed the association of dry eyes with depression and suicidal ideation in a Korean adult population.
Methods
Data from 16408 participants (6972 men and 9436 women) aged ≥ 19 years included in the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted from 2010–2012, were analyzed. For dry eyes, surveys of previous diagnosis of dry eye disease (DED) by an ophthalmologist and experience of subjective dry eye symptoms were separately used. Diagnosis of depression and suicidal ideation were obtained via responses to an interviewer-assisted questionnaire, and questions were asked in a closed-ended response format. Logistic regression was used to examine the associations between dry eyes, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Results
DED diagnosis exhibited an odds ratio (OR) of 1.32 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11–1.57) for depression and 1.24 (95% CI 1.05–1.48) for suicidal ideation compared to those without DED, after adjusting for sex, age, education, occupation, household income, body mass index, smoking behavior, alcohol consumption, physical activity, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, thyroid diseases, major cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Similarly, the adjusted OR (95% CI) of dry eye symptoms was 1.50 (95% CI 1.30–1.73) for depression and 1.47 (95% CI 1.27–1.70) for suicidal ideation.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that dry eyes (either DED diagnosis or dry eye symptoms) may be associated with the prevalence of depression and suicidal ideation in the Korean adult population.
... In the South Korean context, depression and anxiety were the risk factors for suicide ideation (Kim, 2016;Kim, Ko, & Chung, 2010;Lee, Kim, Choi, & Choi, 2014;Ro, Park, Lee, & Jung, 2015;Shin, Choi, Park, & Han, 2014). Other factors such as financial difficulties, living in poverty (Lim, 2014;Park et al., 2014), physical pain (illness) and discomfort (Kim et al., 2010), substance use (Kim et al., 2010), and abuse experience (Jeong & Kim, 2014;Lim, 2014;Seo & Ko, 2011;Seo & Lee, 2016) were also risk factors for suicide ideation. ...
... We found that older persons with depression were 1.19 times more likely to have suicide ideation. This finding is consistent with previous studies that found depression to be an important risk factor for suicide ideation among the older Korean person Lee, Hahm, & Park, 2013;Ro et al., 2015). ...
We examined to what extent the depression, poverty, and elder abuse experience affect suicide ideation among older Koreans. The data from the Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older Persons were used. A sample of 10,279 members was analyzed. Logistic regression analysis revealed that younger old (65–69 years) were more likely to have suicide ideation that oldest old (80 years and older). After including all predicting variables such as depression, poverty, and abuse experience, results showed that depression, poverty, and abuse experience remained predictors for suicide ideation. Higher level of depression (OR = 1.19) was positively associated with suicide ideation. Poor older person (OR = 1.59) and those who experienced abuse (OR = 2.37) were more likely to have suicide ideation than their counterparts. We conclude that suicide prevention policy needs to take a holistic approach, which integrates the mental health of the older people, family welfare, and economic well-being.
