Let's Live Healthier: The Relationship between Suicidal Behavior and Physical Activity in an Age-, Gender-, and Body Mass Index-Matched Adults.

Jeong-Hui Park,Myong-Won Seo,Hyun Chul Jung,Jung-Min Lee

doi:10.3390/ijerph17228350

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the association between physical activity (PA) and predictors of suicidal behaviors and to investigate whether the different PA measurements influence the association between PA and suicidal behaviors in South Korean adults. This study analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2014–2015 data. The study selected participants who checked suicide-related questions as “Yes” (n = 99) and checked suicide-related questions as “No” (n = 99) in the questionnaire. The age, gender, and body mass index of participants between the two groups were matched. The moderate to vigorous PA (p = 0.000) and sedentary PA (p = 0.000), measured by accelerometers, were a significant risk factor for suicidal behaviors. Furthermore, the number of steps was a considerable difference between the two groups (healthy group: 61,495.76 steps; suicide group: 40,517.34 steps), and the accelerometer and questionnaire also showed significant differences. The study demonstrated that there were significant associations with physical activity and socioeconomic status and suicidal behaviors in anthropometry (i.e., age, gender, height, weight) matched groups. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of the assessment of PAs, and increasing PA levels could reduce the incidence of suicidal behaviors.

Highlights

While the World Health Organization (WHO) has regulated that suicide is a critical public health problem, approximately 800,000 people worldwide die from suicide each year [1].The number of people who attempt suicide is increasing every year, and this unfavorable trend has become the greatest public health concern in some countries such as South Korea
The results revealed a significant difference in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) measured by the accelerometer between the suicide and the healthy groups (p = 0.000; 95% CI = −155.08–−66.28)
The present study investigated the association with physical activity and socioeconomic status as well as suicidal behaviors in anthropometry matched groups and compared the differences between objective and subjective methods in measuring the amount of physical activity

Summary

Introduction

While the World Health Organization (WHO) has regulated that suicide is a critical public health problem, approximately 800,000 people worldwide die from suicide each year [1]. The number of people who attempt suicide is increasing every year, and this unfavorable trend has become the greatest public health concern in some countries such as South Korea. The average suicide rate among Korean is indicated at 24.6 per 100,000 people, the highest rate in the past decade among countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) [2,3]. Many studies have shown that one preventive factor against suicide and suicide attempt is physical activity [4,5,6]. Regular physical activity (PA) has positive effects on general physical and psychological health such as stress, anxiety, and depression [7]. Rothon et al [9]

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