서울의 기상 요인과 응급실을 방문한 자살 시도자간의 연관성

Abstract

Suicide is a serious social problem in Korea. Suicide attempts are a strong risk factor for death from future suicide, so it is necessary to study the complex factors of suicide attempts. Climate change is a global problem, and several meteorological factors negatively affect human health. This study explored the association between meteorological factors and emergency room visits due to suicide attempts in Seoul from 2014 to 2018. As meteorological factors, Seoul’s daily minimum temperature, maximum temperature, daily temperature difference, average relatively humidity, sunshine duration, and average cloud cover were used. First, meteorological factors were converted into percentiles through empirical cumulative distribution. After combining the data on suicide attempts and meteorological factors based on the subsequent date, the gender-age standardized suicide attempt rate was calculated using a direct standardization method. Finally, the gender and age-standardized suicide attempt rate per day was obtained after in the calculation process, divided by the number of days during 5 years for each percentile of the meteorological factor. A generalized linear regression model was used assuming that the the suicide attempt rate followed gamma distribution. As a result, the suicide attempt rate significantly increased as the minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and relative humidity increased. The results of this study suggest that an increase in temperature and relative humidity can be a factor that causes suicide attempts.