TY - JOUR PY - 2024// TI - Suicide mortality following the implementation of tobacco packaging and pricing policies in Korea: an interrupted time-series analysis JO - BMC medicine A1 - Jin, Taiyue A1 - Seo, Juhee A1 - Ye, Shinhee A1 - Lee, Seulbi A1 - Park, Eun Young A1 - Oh, Jin-Kyoung A1 - Han, Changwoo A1 - Kim, Byungmi SP - e180 EP - e180 VL - 22 IS - 1 N2 - BACKGROUND: To prevent tobacco use in Korea, the national quitline number was added to tobacco packages in December 2012, tobacco prices were raised by 80% in January 2015, and graphic health warning labels were placed on tobacco packages in December 2016. This study evaluated the association of these tobacco packaging and pricing policies with suicide mortality in Korea.

METHODS: Monthly mortality from suicide was obtained from Cause-of-Death Statistics in Korea from December 2007 to December 2019. Interrupted time-series analysis was performed using segmented Poisson regression models. Relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated adjusted for suicide prevention strategies.

RESULTS: Suicide mortality was 20 per 1,000,000 in December 2007 and showed a downward trend over the study period. After the implementation of tobacco packaging and pricing policies, suicide mortality immediately declined by - 0.09 percent points (95% CI =  - 0.19 to 0.01; P > 0.05) for the national quitline number, - 0.22 percent points (95% CI =  - 0.35 to - 0.09; P < 0.01) for tobacco prices, and - 0.30 percent points (95% CI =  - 0.49 to - 0.11; P < 0.01) for graphic health warning labels. The corresponding RRs for these post-implementation changes compared with the pre-implementation level were 0.91 (95% CI = 0.83 to 1.00), 0.80 (95% CI = 0.70 to 0.91), and 0.74 (95% CI = 0.61 to 0.90), respectively. Significant associations between tobacco control policies and suicide mortality were observed even when stratified by sex and region.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study provide new evidence for an association between tobacco control policies and deaths by suicide. An array of effective tobacco control policies should be considered for prevention programs targeting suicide.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1741-7015 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03372-5 ID - ref1 ER -