Abstract
BackgroundSuicidal ideation is subject to serious underestimation among existing public health studies. While numerous factors have been recognized in affecting suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB), the associated environmental risks have been poorly understood. Foremost among the various environment risks were air pollution, in particular, the PM2.5. The present study attempted to examine the relationship between PM2.5 level and local weekly index of suicidal ideation (ISI).MethodsUsing Internet search query volumes in Baidu (2017), the largest internet search engine in China, we constructed a prefectural panel data (278 prefectures, 52 weeks) and employed dynamic panel GMM system estimation to analyze the relationship between weekly concentration of PM2.5 (Mean = 87 μg·m− 3) and the index of suicidal ideation (Mean = 49.9).ResultsThe results indicate that in the spring and winter, a 10 μg·m− 3 increase in the prior week’s PM2.5 in a Chinese city is significantly associated with 0.020 increase in ISI in spring and a 0.007 increase in ISI in winter, after taking account other co-pollutants and meteorological conditions.ConclusionWe innovatively proposed the measure of suicidal ideation and provided suggestive evidence of a positive association between suicidal ideation and PM2.5 level.
Highlights
Suicidal ideation is subject to serious underestimation among existing public health studies
While numerous factors have been recognized in affecting suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB), such as, life stresses, chronic pain and illness, conflict, disaster, violence, losses, et al [6], the environmental risks have been poorly understood
Index of suicidal ideation (ISI) Prefecture-level suicidal ideation, the dependent variable, is gauged by the index of suicidal ideation (ISI) computed using suicide-related search data extracted from Baidu
Summary
Suicidal ideation is subject to serious underestimation among existing public health studies. While numerous factors have been recognized in affecting suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB), the associated environmental risks have been poorly understood. Foremost among the various environment risks were air pollution, in particular, the PM2.5. While numerous factors have been recognized in affecting suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB), such as, life stresses, chronic pain and illness, conflict, disaster, violence, losses, et al [6], the environmental risks have been poorly understood. As a heatedly discussed dimension, air pollution has a detrimental impact on individual health, including higher rates of mortality [11,12,13,14,15], increased incidence of stroke [16], respiratory diseases [17,18,19], and lung and cardiovascular dysfunction [20,21,22,23,24,25,26], to name a few. As a mixture of fine particles and liquid droplets, PM2.5 is a particular danger because it is sucked into the lungs, where it can have a devastating impact on an individual’s health
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