Trends in suicide in Japan by gender during the COVID-19 pandemic, up to September 2020

Shuhei Nomura; Takayuki Kawashima; Daisuke Yoneoka; Yuta Tanoue; Akifumi Eguchi; Stuart Gilmour; Yumi Kawamura; Nahoko Harada; Masahiro Hashizume

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113622

Trends in suicide in Japan by gender during the COVID-19 pandemic, up to September 2020

Psychiatry Res. 2021 Jan:295:113622. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113622. Epub 2020 Dec 1.

Authors

Shuhei Nomura¹, Takayuki Kawashima², Daisuke Yoneoka³, Yuta Tanoue⁴, Akifumi Eguchi⁵, Stuart Gilmour³, Yumi Kawamura⁶, Nahoko Harada⁷, Masahiro Hashizume⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan; Department of Global Health Policy, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: s-nomura@keio.jp.
² Department of Mathematical and Computing Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Graduate School of Public Health, St. Luke's International University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Institute for Business and Finance, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵ Department of Sustainable Health Science, Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
⁶ RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Saitama, Japan.
⁷ Department of Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing, School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Japan.
⁸ Department of Global Health Policy, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

PMID: 33290942
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113622

Abstract

Suicide is an extreme consequence of the psychological burden associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) counter-measures. A quasi-Poisson regression was applied to monthly suicide mortality data obtained from the National Police Agency to estimate the gender-specific excess/exiguous suicide deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan up to September 2020. We found excess suicide deaths among women in July, August and September, but not among men. Our results indicate the importance of COVID-19 related suicide prevention, especially for women. Timely access to mental health care and financial and social support is urgently needed, as is optimal treatment for mental illness.

Keywords: COVID-19; Japan; suicide.

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19*
Cause of Death / trends*
Female
Humans
Japan / epidemiology
Male
Pandemics
Sex Factors
Suicide, Completed / statistics & numerical data*
Suicide, Completed / trends