Suicide and meteorological factors in São Paulo, Brazil, 1996-2011: a time series analysis

Abstract

Objective: Considering the scarcity of reports from intertropical latitudes and the Southern Hemisphere, we aimed to examine the association between meteorological factors and suicide in Sã o Paulo. Method: Weekly suicide records stratified by sex were gathered. Weekly averages for minimum, mean, and maximum temperature ( o C), insolation (hours), irradiation (MJ/m 2 ), relative humidity (%), atmospheric pressure (mmHg), and rainfall (mm) were computed. The time structures of explanatory variables were modeled by polynomial distributed lag applied to the generalized additive model. The model controlled for long-term trends and selected meteorological factors. Results: The total number of suicides was 6,600 (5,073 for men), an average of 6.7 suicides per week (8.7 for men and 2.0 for women). For overall suicides and among men, effects were predominantly acute and statistically significant only at lag 0. Weekly average minimum temperature had the greatest effect on suicide; there was a 2.28% increase (95%CI 0.90-3.69) in total suicides and a 2.37% increase (95%CI 0.82-3.96) among male suicides with each 1 o C increase. Conclusion: This study suggests that an increase in weekly average minimum temperature has a short-term effect on suicide in Sã o Paulo.

Weather and Suicide: A Decade Analysis in the Five Largest Capital Cities of Colombia

“…Finally, we use a very limited number of weather variables. In addition to the two weather variables that are evaluated here, the absolute humidity, the amount of sunlight radiation (Mj/m 2 ) [ 39 ], and barometric pressure [ 24 ], were not available from the source data and should also be considered as potential variables that influence suicide. However, previous studies assessing weather and suicide have identified temperature and rainfall as the main weather factors that are associated with suicides [ 27 , 28 ], and our study included cities with different mean temperatures in the analysis.…”

Nonlinear temperature-suicide association in Japan from 1972 to 2015: Its heterogeneity and the role of climate, demographic, and socioeconomic factors

“…Several studies have reported that suicide is associated with the ambient temperature ( Page et al, 2007 , Likhvar et al, 2011 , Hanigan et al, 2012 , Dixon et al, 2014 , Williams et al, 2015 , Kim et al, 2016 , Bando et al, 2017 , Carleton, 2017 , Burke et al, 2018 , Dixon and Kalkstein, 2018 , Thompson et al, 2018 , Gao et al, 2019 , Kim et al, 2019 ). Earlier studies focused on a single location or a country, reporting consistent findings that the occurrence of suicide increased with the temperature ( Page et al, 2007 , Likhvar et al, 2011 , Williams et al, 2015 , Bando et al, 2017 ). More recent studies investigated the phenomenon in multiple countries, suggesting that the association may be heterogeneous over different populations ( Hanigan et al, 2012 , Dixon et al, 2014 , Kim et al, 2016 , Carleton, 2017 , Dixon and Kalkstein, 2018 , Gao et al, 2019 , Kim et al, 2019 ).…”

Risk assessment of temperature and air pollutants on hospitalizations for mental and behavioral disorders in Curitiba, Brazil

“…For developing countries located in the South Hemisphere the relationship between mental disorders, air pollution and temperature has been scarcely explored. In Brazil, epidemiological studies investigating the potential associations and their behavior for sex and age groups are non-existent [26]. conducted a study to examine the association between meteorological factors and suicide in São Paulo, Brazil, and they suggested that a temperature increase has a short-term effect on suicide.…”