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Suicide among adults aged 30–49: A psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong

BACKGROUND: A surge in suicide rates in middle age people in Hong Kong and many Asian countries was recently observed. However, there is a paucity of suicide research on this subgroup of people in Asia. METHODS: The next-of-kin of 85 suicide cases and 85 community subjects aged 30–49 years were inte...

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Autores principales: Wong, Paul WC, Chan, Wincy SC, Chen, Eric YH, Chan, Sandra SM, Law, YW, Yip, Paul SF
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2412876/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18447958
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-8-147
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author Wong, Paul WC
Chan, Wincy SC
Chen, Eric YH
Chan, Sandra SM
Law, YW
Yip, Paul SF
author_facet Wong, Paul WC
Chan, Wincy SC
Chen, Eric YH
Chan, Sandra SM
Law, YW
Yip, Paul SF
author_sort Wong, Paul WC
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: A surge in suicide rates in middle age people in Hong Kong and many Asian countries was recently observed. However, there is a paucity of suicide research on this subgroup of people in Asia. METHODS: The next-of-kin of 85 suicide cases and 85 community subjects aged 30–49 years were interviewed by a psychological autopsy approach. Information was triangulated by interview notes, coroner's court files, and police investigation reports. RESULTS: A multiple logistic regression analysis identified the following risk factors for suicide among the middle age people in Hong Kong: the presence of at least one psychiatric disorder (OR = 37.5, 95% CI 11.5–121.9, p < 0.001), indebtedness (OR = 9.4, 95% CI 2.2–40.8, p < 0.01), unemployment (OR = 4.8, 95% CI 1.3–17.5, p < 0.05), never married (OR = 4.2, 95% CI 1.1–16.3, p < 0.05), and lived alone (OR = 3.9, 95% CI 1.2–13.4, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The data show that socio-economical factors had a strong impact on suicide in the target group. Further research is needed to explore any positive qualities that protect the middle-aged from suicide. The prevention of suicide in the middle-aged requires multiple strategies.
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spelling pubmed-24128762008-06-05 Suicide among adults aged 30–49: A psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong Wong, Paul WC Chan, Wincy SC Chen, Eric YH Chan, Sandra SM Law, YW Yip, Paul SF BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: A surge in suicide rates in middle age people in Hong Kong and many Asian countries was recently observed. However, there is a paucity of suicide research on this subgroup of people in Asia. METHODS: The next-of-kin of 85 suicide cases and 85 community subjects aged 30–49 years were interviewed by a psychological autopsy approach. Information was triangulated by interview notes, coroner's court files, and police investigation reports. RESULTS: A multiple logistic regression analysis identified the following risk factors for suicide among the middle age people in Hong Kong: the presence of at least one psychiatric disorder (OR = 37.5, 95% CI 11.5–121.9, p < 0.001), indebtedness (OR = 9.4, 95% CI 2.2–40.8, p < 0.01), unemployment (OR = 4.8, 95% CI 1.3–17.5, p < 0.05), never married (OR = 4.2, 95% CI 1.1–16.3, p < 0.05), and lived alone (OR = 3.9, 95% CI 1.2–13.4, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The data show that socio-economical factors had a strong impact on suicide in the target group. Further research is needed to explore any positive qualities that protect the middle-aged from suicide. The prevention of suicide in the middle-aged requires multiple strategies. BioMed Central 2008-05-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2412876/ /pubmed/18447958 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-8-147 Text en Copyright © 2008 Wong et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wong, Paul WC
Chan, Wincy SC
Chen, Eric YH
Chan, Sandra SM
Law, YW
Yip, Paul SF
Suicide among adults aged 30–49: A psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong
title Suicide among adults aged 30–49: A psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong
title_full Suicide among adults aged 30–49: A psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong
title_fullStr Suicide among adults aged 30–49: A psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong
title_full_unstemmed Suicide among adults aged 30–49: A psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong
title_short Suicide among adults aged 30–49: A psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong
title_sort suicide among adults aged 30–49: a psychological autopsy study in hong kong
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2412876/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18447958
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-8-147
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