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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021: An interrupted time series analysis

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is negatively impacting mental health globally. While increased social cohesion may have initially decreased suicide risk, there are few reports on the long-term impact. We examined the impact of the pandemic on suicide by gender and age through December 2021 in Jap...

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Autores principales: Yoshioka, Eiji, Hanley, Sharon J.B., Sato, Yukihiro, Saijo, Yasuaki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9150875/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35655718
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100480
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author Yoshioka, Eiji
Hanley, Sharon J.B.
Sato, Yukihiro
Saijo, Yasuaki
author_facet Yoshioka, Eiji
Hanley, Sharon J.B.
Sato, Yukihiro
Saijo, Yasuaki
author_sort Yoshioka, Eiji
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is negatively impacting mental health globally. While increased social cohesion may have initially decreased suicide risk, there are few reports on the long-term impact. We examined the impact of the pandemic on suicide by gender and age through December 2021 in Japan. METHODS: We analyzed trends in monthly suicide rates by age and gender from January 2016 to December 2021 using provisional mortality data in an interrupted time series analysis. We also considered linear trends in the pre-pandemic period and seasonal variations. Pandemic onset was defined as from April 2020. Estimated excess deaths by suicide that occurred during the pandemic were calculated. FINDINGS: Excess number of suicide deaths during the pandemic period was estimated to be 1208 for men and 1825 for women. While there was no statistically significant increase in suicide rates overall for both men and women during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic, age-specific analyses showed a statistically significant increase in men 20–29 and 40–49 years, and in women of all age groups, except those under 20, 40–49 and over 80 years. INTERPRETATION: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on suicide rates in Japan and the impact is most pronounced in women and younger age groups. Subgroup analyses are needed, with a particular focus on those considered to be vulnerable and at increased suicide risk. FUNDING: A Grant-in-Aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Award Number 21K10462).
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spelling pubmed-91508752022-05-31 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021: An interrupted time series analysis Yoshioka, Eiji Hanley, Sharon J.B. Sato, Yukihiro Saijo, Yasuaki Lancet Reg Health West Pac Articles BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is negatively impacting mental health globally. While increased social cohesion may have initially decreased suicide risk, there are few reports on the long-term impact. We examined the impact of the pandemic on suicide by gender and age through December 2021 in Japan. METHODS: We analyzed trends in monthly suicide rates by age and gender from January 2016 to December 2021 using provisional mortality data in an interrupted time series analysis. We also considered linear trends in the pre-pandemic period and seasonal variations. Pandemic onset was defined as from April 2020. Estimated excess deaths by suicide that occurred during the pandemic were calculated. FINDINGS: Excess number of suicide deaths during the pandemic period was estimated to be 1208 for men and 1825 for women. While there was no statistically significant increase in suicide rates overall for both men and women during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic, age-specific analyses showed a statistically significant increase in men 20–29 and 40–49 years, and in women of all age groups, except those under 20, 40–49 and over 80 years. INTERPRETATION: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on suicide rates in Japan and the impact is most pronounced in women and younger age groups. Subgroup analyses are needed, with a particular focus on those considered to be vulnerable and at increased suicide risk. FUNDING: A Grant-in-Aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Award Number 21K10462). Elsevier 2022-05-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9150875/ /pubmed/35655718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100480 Text en © 2022 The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Articles
Yoshioka, Eiji
Hanley, Sharon J.B.
Sato, Yukihiro
Saijo, Yasuaki
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021: An interrupted time series analysis
title Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021: An interrupted time series analysis
title_full Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021: An interrupted time series analysis
title_fullStr Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021: An interrupted time series analysis
title_full_unstemmed Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021: An interrupted time series analysis
title_short Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021: An interrupted time series analysis
title_sort impact of the covid-19 pandemic on suicide rates in japan through december 2021: an interrupted time series analysis
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9150875/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35655718
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100480
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