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Article: Decomposing the widening suicide gender gap: an experience in Taipei City, Taiwan

TitleDecomposing the widening suicide gender gap: an experience in Taipei City, Taiwan
Authors
KeywordsAttempt incidence
Case fatality
Gender ratio
Suicide
Taipei
Taiwan
Issue Date2012
PublisherElsevier BV. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jad
Citation
Journal of affective disorders, 2012, v. 136 n. 3, p. 868-874 How to Cite?
AbstractBACKGROUND: There has been a widening suicide gender gap in Taiwan in the past decade. This study aimed to examine the contributions of changing incidence patterns of suicidal behavior and case fatalities of different suicide methods in quantitatively explaining the male excess in suicide rates and the associated changes in gender ratio of suicide in Taipei City from 2004 to 2006. METHODS: A decompositional method was used to quantify the contributions of age, method-specific case fatality, and attempt incidence to male excess in suicide rates. Our aim is to examine the male excess in suicide rate by decomposing the difference (i.e., male minus female) and widening gender ratio (i.e., male to female) during the study period, respectively. RESULTS: Charcoal burning suicide replaced hanging as the most common method of suicide in 2006. Its percentage of contribution for the male excess in suicide rate (i.e., male minus female) increased from 36.3% in 2004 to 45.1% in 2006 whereas poisoning from solid and liquid poisoning reduced from 7.7% to 4.9% for the same period. Also, the widening suicide gender ratio was mostly due to the increased incidence of attempts of three highly lethal methods of suicide among men: charcoal burning (59.5%), hanging (38.6%), and jumping from a height (35.6%). The disproportionate increase in attempt incidence especially for the methods of charcoal burning and hanging among 40-59 year-old men contributed most significantly to the widened suicide gender gap. LIMITATIONS: Although accessibility to emergency services in major hospitals is good, it is to be expected that there are an unknown number of underreported of suicide attempts which might affect the results. Also, we have selected only age-, gender- and method-specific case fatality and incidence of suicide attempt to explain the male excess in suicide rates. Some other factors, for example, urban and rural region which might be related to the gender ratio, but have not been examined in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Suicide attempt incidences in males and females have increased considerably in the period 2004-2006. As males especially those 40-59 years old are drawn to use more lethal methods of suicide (i.e. charcoal burning and jumping), the excessive male suicide rate and the suicide gender ratio continues to increase even though the gender ratio of attempt incidence remains the same.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/172287
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 4.9
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 2.082
ISI Accession Number ID
References

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorChen, YYen_US
dc.contributor.authorKwok, RCLen_US
dc.contributor.authorYip, PSFen_US
dc.date.accessioned2012-10-30T06:21:11Z-
dc.date.available2012-10-30T06:21:11Z-
dc.date.issued2012en_US
dc.identifier.citationJournal of affective disorders, 2012, v. 136 n. 3, p. 868-874en_US
dc.identifier.issn0165-0327en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/172287-
dc.description.abstractBACKGROUND: There has been a widening suicide gender gap in Taiwan in the past decade. This study aimed to examine the contributions of changing incidence patterns of suicidal behavior and case fatalities of different suicide methods in quantitatively explaining the male excess in suicide rates and the associated changes in gender ratio of suicide in Taipei City from 2004 to 2006. METHODS: A decompositional method was used to quantify the contributions of age, method-specific case fatality, and attempt incidence to male excess in suicide rates. Our aim is to examine the male excess in suicide rate by decomposing the difference (i.e., male minus female) and widening gender ratio (i.e., male to female) during the study period, respectively. RESULTS: Charcoal burning suicide replaced hanging as the most common method of suicide in 2006. Its percentage of contribution for the male excess in suicide rate (i.e., male minus female) increased from 36.3% in 2004 to 45.1% in 2006 whereas poisoning from solid and liquid poisoning reduced from 7.7% to 4.9% for the same period. Also, the widening suicide gender ratio was mostly due to the increased incidence of attempts of three highly lethal methods of suicide among men: charcoal burning (59.5%), hanging (38.6%), and jumping from a height (35.6%). The disproportionate increase in attempt incidence especially for the methods of charcoal burning and hanging among 40-59 year-old men contributed most significantly to the widened suicide gender gap. LIMITATIONS: Although accessibility to emergency services in major hospitals is good, it is to be expected that there are an unknown number of underreported of suicide attempts which might affect the results. Also, we have selected only age-, gender- and method-specific case fatality and incidence of suicide attempt to explain the male excess in suicide rates. Some other factors, for example, urban and rural region which might be related to the gender ratio, but have not been examined in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Suicide attempt incidences in males and females have increased considerably in the period 2004-2006. As males especially those 40-59 years old are drawn to use more lethal methods of suicide (i.e. charcoal burning and jumping), the excessive male suicide rate and the suicide gender ratio continues to increase even though the gender ratio of attempt incidence remains the same.en_US
dc.languageengen_US
dc.publisherElsevier BV. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jaden_US
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of affective disordersen_US
dc.subjectAttempt incidence-
dc.subjectCase fatality-
dc.subjectGender ratio-
dc.subjectSuicide-
dc.subjectTaipei-
dc.subjectTaiwan-
dc.subject.meshIncidence-
dc.subject.meshSex Factors-
dc.subject.meshSuicide - statistics and numerical data-
dc.subject.meshSuicide, Attempted - statistics and numerical data-
dc.subject.meshTaiwan - epidemiology-
dc.titleDecomposing the widening suicide gender gap: an experience in Taipei City, Taiwanen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.emailChen, YY: ychen@tpech.gov.twen_US
dc.identifier.emailKwok, RCL: raykcl@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailYip, PSF: sfpyip@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityYip, PSF=rp00596en_US
dc.description.naturelink_to_subscribed_fulltexten_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jad.2011.09.019en_US
dc.identifier.pmid22113179-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-84857363699en_US
dc.identifier.hkuros210013-
dc.relation.referenceshttp://www.scopus.com/mlt/select.url?eid=2-s2.0-84857363699&selection=ref&src=s&origin=recordpageen_US
dc.identifier.volume136en_US
dc.identifier.issue3en_US
dc.identifier.spage868en_US
dc.identifier.epage874en_US
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000301996000089-
dc.publisher.placeNetherlandsen_US
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridYip, PSF=7102503720en_US
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridKwok, RCL=54395892900en_US
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridChen, YY=52163268600en_US
dc.identifier.citeulike10071591-
dc.identifier.issnl0165-0327-

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