Suicide Death Rate after Disasters: A Meta-Analysis Study
- 2 January 2022
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in Archives of Suicide Research
- Vol. 26 (1), 14-27
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2020.1793045
Abstract
Background Disasters have undesirable effects on health among individuals such as psychosocial disorders which may lead lead to suicide in some cases. Thus, the present study aimed to measure the rate of suicide death after disasters all over the world. Methods In the present meta-analysis study, all of the articles published in English until the end of 2019 were probed in electronic databases such as Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, and Google Scholar. Then, the data were imported to STATA ver.13 software and analyzed through fixed- and random-effects models, meta-regression, and Cochrane statistical tests. Results A total of 11 studies including a sample size of 65495867 were considered. Suicide death rates before and after the disasters were calculated as 13.61 (CI95%: 11.59-15.77) vs. 16.68 (CI95%: 14.5-19:0) among the whole population, 28.36 (CI 95%:11.29-45.43) vs. 32.17 (CI95%: 17.71-46.62) among men, and 12.71 (CI95%: 5.98-19.44) vs 12.69 (CI95%: 5.17-20.21) among women. The rate of suicide death significantly increased in the whole population and men, while no significant difference was reported among women. Conclusion Suicide death rate increases after disasters indicating the destructive impact of this phenomenon on peoples' health. Therefore, implementing supportive and interventional measures is highly suggested after disasters in order to prevent suicide death among the affected people.Keywords
This publication has 51 references indexed in Scilit:
- The impact of the Great East Japan earthquake on mandatory psychiatric emergency hospitalizations in Tokyo: a retrospective observational studyTranslational Psychiatry, 2012
- Cross-National Analysis of the Associations between Traumatic Events and Suicidal Behavior: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health SurveysPLOS ONE, 2010
- Weighing the Costs of DisasterPsychological Science in the Public Interest, 2010
- Disasters and youth: A meta-analytic examination of posttraumatic stress.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2010
- The influence of a major disaster on suicide risk in the populationJournal of Traumatic Stress, 2009
- Effect of the 2004 tsunami on suicide rates in Sri LankaPsychiatric Bulletin, 2009
- A revisit on older adults suicides and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in Hong KongInternational Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2008
- The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement: guidelines for reporting observational studiesJournal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2008
- The Suicide Mortality Rates between 1997–1998 and 2000–2001 in Nantou County of Taiwan Following the Earthquake of September 21 in 1999Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2008
- Epidemiologic psychiatric studies on post‐disaster impact among Chi‐Chi earthquake survivors in Yu‐Chi, TaiwanPsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 2007