Contact with the health care system prior to suicide: A nationwide population-based analysis using linkage national death certificates and national health insurance data

Abstract

This study aimed to discover the proportion of people dying by suicide who had non-psychiatric medical contact alone or any mental health contact in the year, month, and week prior to suicide. Data on suicide deaths (n = 74,741) of all South Koreans from 2009 to 2013 were linked with National Health Insurance (NHI) data by social security number to identify health care contact during the 12 months prior to suicide. The NHI data includes records on inpatient or outpatient service and type of health care institutes which the decedents have contacted. Among the 74,741 individuals who died by suicide, the proportion of individuals who contacted non-psychiatric health care alone was 60.1%, 46.1%, and 35.5%; and the proportion of those who had any mental health contact was 27.9%, 18.0%, and 7.9% in the year, four weeks, and week before death, respectively. Psychiatric care visits in the year, four weeks and weeks prior to death occurred most frequently in psychiatric local clinics. Non-psychiatric care visits in the year and four weeks prior to death were most common in local clinics at the primary care level, but in the one week before death, non-psychiatric care visits were common in tertiary hospital departments. This study indicates that the majority of suicide cases are not diagnosed and managed preceding death despite high general medical contact rates. It implies that suicide prevention strategy should be applied to non-psychiatric medical settings in countries with high suicide rates like South Korea.