Abstract
A number of ecological studies have found a pattern of increasing suicide rates after suicides of several Asian entertainment celebrities. However, the finding may be subject to positive outcome bias where cases with no perceived impact may be routinely excluded. In this study, we deploy interrupted time-series analysis using ARIMA transfer function models to investigate systematically the impact of thirteen celebrity suicides on subsequent suicide rates in South Korea. We find that three out of eleven cases were found to be followed by a significant increase in suicide rate, while controlling for seasonality, secular trends, and unemployment rates. Such significant increases could last for nine weeks. Non-significance cases may be attributable to the small amount of media coverage, the “displacement” effect of preceding case, and the negative connotation of celebrity deaths. We therefore conclude that whether or not the impacts were detected may be largely conditioned by various contextual factors. Current evidence based on ecological studies is insufficient to draw a firm conclusion. Further studies using multiple approaches should be developed.
Highlights
Research in past decades has demonstrated that celebrity suicide and its associated media reporting can stimulate a subsequent rise in the suicide rate [1,2,3]
This study aims to systematically investigate the impact of entertainment celebrity suicides on the overall suicide rate in South Korea and secondly to test the displacement effect and longer-term effect hypotheses
The decline rate estimate showed a significant increase of the suicide deaths remained for 3 weeks
Summary
Research in past decades has demonstrated that celebrity suicide and its associated media reporting can stimulate a subsequent rise in the suicide rate [1,2,3]. Recent studies have extended the investigation into the influence of the suicides of Asian entertainment celebrities and have reconfirmed the impact [4,5,6]. All these studies examined single or self-selected cases of celebrity suicide. Researchers may selectively report cases that have higher perceived impact, whereas other cases with low perceived impact may be consistently excluded This may give rise to publication bias and at worst may mislead the conclusion. In this study, we propose to deploy a systematic approach to selection of cases and test the effect hypothesis in a unified statistical model
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