Suicidal ideation ; Suicide attempts ; Trend ; Income level ; Korea
Abstract
Suicide has been a public health issue in many countries, and Korea has ranked highest suicide rate among Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries over a decade. To address these issues, we updated the recent trends in suicidal
ideation and suicide attempts among Korean adults followed by previous data observation. We used data from five sources:
Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination (KNHANES, ‘07–12, ‘13, ‘15–16), Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS, ‘08–09,
‘13), Korean Wealth Panel Study (KOWEPS, ‘12–16), Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, ‘10–13), and cause of death data from Statistics
Korea (‘07–16). We used weighted frequencies and trend tests. The rate of suicidal ideation as recent year was 5.10% (KNHANES, ‘15),
8.95% (KCHS, ‘13), 2.08% (KOWEPS, ‘16), and 5.39% (KHP, ‘13). That of suicide attempts as recent year was 0.59% (KNHANES, ‘16),
0.41% (KCHS, ‘13), and 0.08% (KOWEPS, ‘16). Annual percentage change of suicidal ideation was -2.80% (KNHANES, ‘07–12), 5.78%
(KNHANES, ’13–15), 0.62% (KCHS, ‘08–13), -8.50% (KOWEPS, ‘12–16), and -10.94% (KHP, ‘10–13). Annual percentage change of suicide
attempts was -3.84% (KNHANES, ‘07–12), 2.26% (KNHANES, ’13–16), -2.53% (KCHS, ‘08–13), and -20.22% (KOWEPS, ‘12–16). Annual
percentage change of death by intentional self-harm was -0.49% (Statistics Korea, ‘07–16). Individuals who had lower income level
were more likely to experience suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. According to these results, the rate of suicidal ideation and
suicide attempts showed the decreasing tendency. However, the suicide rate of Korea has remained higher than that of OECD countries.
Thus, continuous data observation and effective policies on suicide are needed.