Citation

Ji NJ, Hong YP, Stack SJ, Lee WY. J. Korean Med. Sci. 2014; 29(8): 1174-1177.

Affiliation

Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Korean Academy of Medical Science)

DOI

10.3346/jkms.2014.29.8.1174

PMID

25120332

Abstract

The aims of this study were to analyze annual trends of charcoal burning (CB) suicide, 2000 to 2011, and to examine the risk factors of CB suicide in Korea. Data on suicides (n=138,938) were obtained from the Statistics Korea. The proportion of CB suicides among all suicide deaths reported was 0.7% (84 cases) in 2007, and since 2008 it has rapidly increased to 7.9% (1,251 cases) in 2011. Of significant risk factors of CB suicide, the presence of the media report of Ahn's suicide was the greatest risk factor (adjusted odds ratio, 11.69; 95% CI, 10.30-13.23) of the initial phase of the continuing CB suicides since 2008. Korean Government should urgently consider effective measures against CB suicide, including enforced media regulations on reporting such suicides.

Language: en