This file photo shows a special phone installed on Mapo Bridge over Seoul’s Han River, which is a well-known suicide spot. The phone connects a person directly to crisis counseling as part of efforts to prevent suicide. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Despite all-out efforts made by the South Korean government and professionals to prevent suicide, the country’s suicide rate continues to top the list of member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with no sign of a decline.
Against this backdrop, a recent study showed that parents’ suicidal thoughts greatly raise the risk that their kids will think about suicide, while chronic diseases also increase the risk for considering suicide.
A joint research team consisting of professionals from Korea University Anam Hospital and Asan Medical Center analyzed the correlation between the type and number of chronic diseases and suicidal thoughts on the basis of data from 16,069 adults over 19 years of age that was collected through separate national health and nutritional surveys conducted in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
This study identified that the incidence of chronic disease lead to a higher risk of considering suicide.
In particular, individuals with more than five chronic diseases turned out to be 2.78 times more likely to think about suicide than those who had no chronic disease.
By type of chronic disease, patients with renal failure were 4.43 time more likely to consider suicide compared to the control group.
Another study conducted by the Yonsei University College of Medicine analyzed the correlation between parents’ suicidal thoughts and their kids’ thoughts.
Based on data from national health and nutritional surveys conducted in 2007, 2013 and 2015, this study covered a total of 2,324 teenagers between 12 and 18 years of age, as well as their parents.
The study found that 16.1 percent of the teenagers’ parents had thought about suicide within the past year. Among the teenagers whose parents thought about suicide, 18.4 percent also reported thinking about suicide within the previous year.
In contrast, the share of teenagers who thought about suicide although their parents did not remained relatively low at 8.9 percent.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
