Age and sex subgroups vulnerable to copycat suicide: evaluation of nationwide data in South Korea

Abstract

Media reports of a celebrity’s suicide may be followed by copycat suicides, and the impact may vary in different age and sex subgroups. We proposed a quantitative framework to assess the vulnerability of age and sex subgroups to copycat suicide and used this method to investigate copycat suicides in relation to the suicides of 10 celebrities in South Korea from 1993 to 2013. By applying a detrending model to control for annual and seasonal fluctuations, we estimated the expected number of suicides within a copycat suicide period. The copycat effect was assessed in two ways: the magnitude of copycat suicide by dividing the observed by the expected number of suicides, and the mortality rate by subtracting the expected from the observed number of suicides. Females aged 20–29 years were the most vulnerable subgroup according to both the magnitude of the copycat effect (2.31-fold increase over baseline) and the mortality rate from copycat suicide (22.7-increase). Males aged 50–59 years were the second most vulnerable subgroup according to the copycat suicide mortality rate (20.5- increase). We hope that the proposed quantitative framework will be used to identify vulnerable subgroups to copycat effect, thereby helping devise strategies for prevention.

Raising awareness of suicide prevention during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…31 Moreover, media reports of people committing suicide may be followed by copycat suicides, especially when details of the method of suicide are specified. 32 pandemic increased possibility of interrupting psychiatric patients' maintenance treatment and making more substance addicts to suffer from withdrawal symptoms, which may increase suicide risk of these populations in this special period. [34][35][36] Besides, sleep disturbance is an independent risk factor for suicidality, and a recent study has found that insomnia severity fully accounted for the positive association between COVID-19-related fear and suicidal ideation.…”

“…31 Moreover, media reports of people committing suicide may be followed by copycat suicides, especially when details of the method of suicide are specified. 32 To minimize the negative impacts of rumors and misinformation, mass media, healthcare organization, clinicians, researchers and scientists must work together to conduct health education to disseminate accurate information about the COVID-19 pandemic and dispel the rumors and misinformation in time, and for rumor mongers, relevant laws and regulations should be strictly implemented. 33 These measures could make rumors and misinformation under control, and consequently abate suicide risk.…”

Effects of catastrophic financial loss on suicide risk: evidence from Korean stock market crash in October 2008

“…Ku et al and Kim et al reported an increase in suicide after her death concordant with the Werther effect [22,27]. Nonetheless, we attempted to control the Werther effect by exclusion of the most vulnerable groups, females aged 20-29 years [19], from our study population and adjustment of the Werther effect in our model. However, there might be residual Werther effect which may have resulted in overestimation of the effect of the Korean stock market crash on the suicide risk.…”

“…However, there might be residual Werther effect which may have resulted in overestimation of the effect of the Korean stock market crash on the suicide risk. Consequently, because younger females are more vulnerable to the Werther effect [19,48,49], some portion of the large instantaneous effects in females aged < 50 years may be attributed to the Werther effect. Another major limitation is that we do not have suicide victim specific data.…”

“…The estimated number of individual investors and population by sex-age-specific group Werther effects in Korea are females aged 20-29 years[19], exclusion of persons younger than 30 years would minimize the mixing of Werther and the market crash effect.…”