Influential Factors for and Outcomes of Hospitalized Patients with Suicide-Related Behaviors: A National Record Study in Taiwan from 1997–2010

BACKGROUND: Investigating the factors related to suicide is crucial for suicide prevention. Psychiatric disorders, gender, socioeconomic status, and catastrophic illnesses are associated with increased risk of suicide. Most studies have typically focused on the separate influences of physiological or psychological factors on suicide-related behaviors, and have rarely used national data records to examine and compare the effects of major physical illnesses, psychiatric disorders, and socioeconomic status on the risk of suicide-related behaviors. OBJECTIVES: To identify the characteristics of people who exhibited suicide-related behaviors and the multiple factors associated with repeated suicide-related behaviors and deaths by suicide by examining national data records. DESIGN: This is a cohort study of Taiwan’s national data records of hospitalized patients with suicide-related behaviors from January 1, 1997, to December 31, 2010. PARTICIPANTS: The study population included all people in Taiwan who were hospitalized with a code indicating suicide or self-inflicted injury (E950–E959) according to the International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification. RESULTS: Self-poisoning was the most common method of self-inflicted injury among hospitalized patients with suicide-related behaviors who used a single method. Those who were female, had been hospitalized for suicide-related behaviors at a younger age, had a low income, had a psychiatric disorder (i.e., personality disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcohol-related disorder, or adjustment disorder), had a catastrophic illness, or had been hospitalized for suicide-related behaviors that involved two methods of self-inflicted injury had a higher risk of hospitalization for repeated suicide-related behaviors. Those who were male, had been hospitalized for suicide-related behaviors at an older age, had low income, had schizophrenia, showed repeated suicide-related behaviors, had a catastrophic illness, or had adopted a single lethal method had an increased risk of death by suicide. CONCLUSIONS: High-risk factors should be considered when devising suicide-prevention strategies.