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The impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan: a spatial analysis

BACKGROUND: Pesticide self-poisoning is the most commonly used suicide method worldwide, but few studies have investigated the national epidemiology of pesticide suicide in countries where it is a major public health problem. This study aims to investigate geographic variations in pesticide suicide...

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Autores principales: Chang, Shu-Sen, Lu, Tsung-Hsueh, Sterne, Jonathan AC, Eddleston, Michael, Lin, Jin-Jia, Gunnell, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3351735/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22471759
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-260
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author Chang, Shu-Sen
Lu, Tsung-Hsueh
Sterne, Jonathan AC
Eddleston, Michael
Lin, Jin-Jia
Gunnell, David
author_facet Chang, Shu-Sen
Lu, Tsung-Hsueh
Sterne, Jonathan AC
Eddleston, Michael
Lin, Jin-Jia
Gunnell, David
author_sort Chang, Shu-Sen
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Pesticide self-poisoning is the most commonly used suicide method worldwide, but few studies have investigated the national epidemiology of pesticide suicide in countries where it is a major public health problem. This study aims to investigate geographic variations in pesticide suicide and their impact on the spatial distribution of suicide in Taiwan. METHODS: Smoothed standardized mortality ratios for pesticide suicide (2002-2009) were mapped across Taiwan's 358 districts (median population aged 15 or above = 27 000), and their associations with the size of agricultural workforce were investigated using Bayesian hierarchical models. RESULTS: In 2002-2009 pesticide poisoning was the third most common suicide method in Taiwan, accounting for 13.6% (4913/36 110) of all suicides. Rates were higher in agricultural East and Central Taiwan and lower in major cities. Almost half (47%) of all pesticide suicides occurred in areas where only 13% of Taiwan's population lived. The geographic distribution of overall suicides was more similar to that of pesticide suicides than non-pesticide suicides. Rural-urban differences in suicide were mostly due to pesticide suicide. Areas where a higher proportion of people worked in agriculture showed higher pesticide suicide rates (adjusted rate ratio [ARR] per standard deviation increase in the proportion of agricultural workers = 1.58, 95% Credible Interval [CrI] 1.44-1.74) and overall suicide rates (ARR = 1.06, 95% CrI 1.03-1.10) but lower non-pesticide suicide rates (ARR = 0.91, 95% CrI 0.87-0.95). CONCLUSION: Easy access to pesticides appears to influence the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan, highlighting the potential benefits of targeted prevention strategies such as restricting access to highly toxic pesticides.
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spelling pubmed-33517352012-05-16 The impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan: a spatial analysis Chang, Shu-Sen Lu, Tsung-Hsueh Sterne, Jonathan AC Eddleston, Michael Lin, Jin-Jia Gunnell, David BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Pesticide self-poisoning is the most commonly used suicide method worldwide, but few studies have investigated the national epidemiology of pesticide suicide in countries where it is a major public health problem. This study aims to investigate geographic variations in pesticide suicide and their impact on the spatial distribution of suicide in Taiwan. METHODS: Smoothed standardized mortality ratios for pesticide suicide (2002-2009) were mapped across Taiwan's 358 districts (median population aged 15 or above = 27 000), and their associations with the size of agricultural workforce were investigated using Bayesian hierarchical models. RESULTS: In 2002-2009 pesticide poisoning was the third most common suicide method in Taiwan, accounting for 13.6% (4913/36 110) of all suicides. Rates were higher in agricultural East and Central Taiwan and lower in major cities. Almost half (47%) of all pesticide suicides occurred in areas where only 13% of Taiwan's population lived. The geographic distribution of overall suicides was more similar to that of pesticide suicides than non-pesticide suicides. Rural-urban differences in suicide were mostly due to pesticide suicide. Areas where a higher proportion of people worked in agriculture showed higher pesticide suicide rates (adjusted rate ratio [ARR] per standard deviation increase in the proportion of agricultural workers = 1.58, 95% Credible Interval [CrI] 1.44-1.74) and overall suicide rates (ARR = 1.06, 95% CrI 1.03-1.10) but lower non-pesticide suicide rates (ARR = 0.91, 95% CrI 0.87-0.95). CONCLUSION: Easy access to pesticides appears to influence the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan, highlighting the potential benefits of targeted prevention strategies such as restricting access to highly toxic pesticides. BioMed Central 2012-04-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3351735/ /pubmed/22471759 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-260 Text en Copyright ©2012 Chang 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
Chang, Shu-Sen
Lu, Tsung-Hsueh
Sterne, Jonathan AC
Eddleston, Michael
Lin, Jin-Jia
Gunnell, David
The impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan: a spatial analysis
title The impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan: a spatial analysis
title_full The impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan: a spatial analysis
title_fullStr The impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan: a spatial analysis
title_full_unstemmed The impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan: a spatial analysis
title_short The impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in Taiwan: a spatial analysis
title_sort impact of pesticide suicide on the geographic distribution of suicide in taiwan: a spatial analysis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3351735/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22471759
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-260
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