Citation

Jiang FF, Xu HL, Liao HY, Zhang T. Crisis 2016; 38(1): 36-43.

Affiliation

XiangYa School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, International Association for Suicide Prevention, Publisher Hogrefe Publishing)

DOI

10.1027/0227-5910/a000402

PMID

27278566

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In mainland China, frequent Internet suicide pacts in recent years have raised strong concerns from several social sectors and the influence of social networks on suicide is constantly growing. AIMS: To identify the epidemiological characteristics of media-reported Internet suicide pacts in mainland China.

METHOD: Our study comprised 62 Internet suicide pacts involving 159 victims in mainland China before June 1, 2015. Kendall's randomness test, a trend test, and a circular distribution test were applied to identify the rising or concentrated trends in the time of occurrence of Internet suicide pacts.

RESULTS: The overall male-to-female ratio was 2.3:1. Suicide victims were mainly people in their 20s to 30s (84.1%). In all, 87.1% suicide victims completed suicide in sealed hotels or rental housing, and charcoal-burning suicide accounted for 80.6% of cases.

CONCLUSION: People who complete suicide as part of an Internet suicide pact are more likely to be males, aged 20-30 years. Charcoal-burning suicide in sealed hotels or rental housing was the commonest way of dying.

Language: en