Temporal patterns of charcoal burning suicides among the working age population in Hong Kong SAR: the influence of economic activity status and sex

Chi-Kin Law,Candi Mc Leung

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12-505

Abstract

BackgroundCharcoal burning in a sealed room has recently emerged as the second most common suicide means in Hong Kong, causing approximately 200 deaths each year. As charcoal burning suicide victims have a unique sociodemographic profile (i.e., predominantly economically active men), they may commit suicide at specific times. However, little is known about the temporal patterns of charcoal burning suicides.MethodsSuicide data from 2001 to 2008 on victims of usual working age (20–59) were obtained from the registered death files of the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong. A total of 1649 cases of charcoal burning suicide were analyzed using a two-step procedure, which first examined the temporal asymmetries in the incidence of suicide, and second investigated whether these asymmetries were influenced by sex and/or economic activity status. Poisson regression analyses were employed to model the monthly and daily patterns of suicide by economic activity status and sex.ResultsOur findings revealed pronounced monthly and daily temporal variations in the pattern of charcoal burning suicides in Hong Kong. Consistent with previous findings on overall suicide deaths, there was an overall spring peak in April, and Monday was the common high risk day for all groups. Although sex determined the pattern of variation in charcoal burning suicides, the magnitude of the variation was influenced by the economic activity status of the victims.ConclusionThe traditional classification of suicide methods as either violent or nonviolent tends to elide the temporal variations of specific methods. The interaction between sex and economic activity status observed in the present study indicates that sex should be taken into consideration when investigating the influence of economic activity status on temporal variations of suicide. This finding also suggests that suicide prevention efforts should be both time- and subgroup-specific.

Highlights

Charcoal burning in a sealed room has recently emerged as the second most common suicide means in Hong Kong, causing approximately 200 deaths each year
A total of 498 working men, 203 working women, 571 non-working men, and 307 non-working women were included in the analysis of the influence of economic activity status and sex on the temporal variation in charcoal burning suicides
The results of this study may increase the awareness of clinicians, volunteers, and other stakeholders of the most probable timings of suicide, when at-risk individuals may be more vulnerable to suicidality [36,40,41]

Summary

Introduction

Charcoal burning in a sealed room has recently emerged as the second most common suicide means in Hong Kong, causing approximately 200 deaths each year. Charcoal burning in a sealed room has recently emerged as the second most common suicide method in Hong Kong [1,2,3,4,5]. No prior research has examined the temporal pattern of suicides by charcoal burning. Previous studies consistently showed asymmetrical distributions of suicide deaths For both sexes, major peaks were found in late spring or summer (“Spring fever”) [7,8,9,10,11,12], whereas a nadir was noted in December (winter) [13]. Charcoal burning suicides may have temporal variations if they follow a similar pattern

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Discussion

Conclusion