Temporal patterns of charcoal burning suicides among the working age population in Hong Kong SAR: the influence of economic activity status and sex

BMC Public Health

Candi MC Leung¹  Chi-kin Law² 

[1]Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

[2]Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, Griffith University, Griffith, Australia

关键词: seasonal risk;    time pattern;    suicide prevention;    charcoal burning;    Temporal variation;   

Others  :  1163470
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-505

 received in 2011-11-27, accepted in 2012-06-26,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Charcoal burning in a sealed room has recently emerged as the second most common suicide means in Hong Kong, causing approximately 200 deaths each year. As charcoal burning suicide victims have a unique sociodemographic profile (i.e., predominantly economically active men), they may commit suicide at specific times. However, little is known about the temporal patterns of charcoal burning suicides.

Methods

Suicide data from 2001 to 2008 on victims of usual working age (20–59) were obtained from the registered death files of the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong. A total of 1649 cases of charcoal burning suicide were analyzed using a two-step procedure, which first examined the temporal asymmetries in the incidence of suicide, and second investigated whether these asymmetries were influenced by sex and/or economic activity status. Poisson regression analyses were employed to model the monthly and daily patterns of suicide by economic activity status and sex.

Results

Our findings revealed pronounced monthly and daily temporal variations in the pattern of charcoal burning suicides in Hong Kong. Consistent with previous findings on overall suicide deaths, there was an overall spring peak in April, and Monday was the common high risk day for all groups. Although sex determined the pattern of variation in charcoal burning suicides, the magnitude of the variation was influenced by the economic activity status of the victims.

Conclusion

The traditional classification of suicide methods as either violent or nonviolent tends to elide the temporal variations of specific methods. The interaction between sex and economic activity status observed in the present study indicates that sex should be taken into consideration when investigating the influence of economic activity status on temporal variations of suicide. This finding also suggests that suicide prevention efforts should be both time- and subgroup-specific.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Law and Leung; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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