Public Health
Volume 124, Issue 1 , Pages 49-54 , January 2010

Association of secular trends in unemployment with suicide in Taiwan, 1959–2007: A time-series analysis

  • S.-S. Chang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
    • Ju Shan Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, 39 Whatley Road, Bristol BS8 2PS, UK. Tel.: +44 117 9287223; fax: +44 117 9287236.
    • ,
  • J.A.C. Sterne

      Affiliations

    • Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
    • ,
  • W.-C. Huang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Economics, Western Michigan University, Michigan, USA
    • ,
  • H.-L. Chuang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Economics, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
    • ,
  • D. Gunnell

      Affiliations

    • Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Received 7 April 2009 ,Revised 10 October 2009 ,Accepted 17 November 2009.

References 

  1. Platt S, Hawton K. Suicidal behaviour and the labour market. In:  Hawton K,  Van Heeringen K editor. The international handbook of suicide and attempted suicide. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons; 2000;p. 309–384
  2. Hintikka J, Saarinen PI, Viinamaki H. Suicide mortality in Finland during an economic cycle, 1985–1995. Scand J Public Health. 1999;27:85–88
  3. Lucey S, Corcoran P, Keeley HS, Brophy J, Arensman E, Perry IJ. Socioeconomic change and suicide: a time-series study from the Republic of Ireland. Crisis. 2005;26:90–94
  4. Neumayer E. Recessions lower (some) mortality rates: evidence from Germany. Soc Sci Med. 2004;58:1037–1047
  5. Yip KS, Ng YN. Chinese cultural dynamics of unemployability of male adults with psychiatric disabilities in Hong Kong. Psychiatr Rehabil J. 2002;26:197–202
  6. Yamasaki A, Araki S, Sakai R, Yokoyama K, Voorhees AS. Suicide mortality of young, middle-aged and elderly males and females in Japan for the years 1953–96: time series analysis for the effects of unemployment, female labour force, young and aged population, primary industry and population density. Ind Health. 2008;46:541–549
  7. Chang SS, Gunnell D, Sterne JAC, Lu TH, Cheng ATA. Was the economic crisis 1997–1998 responsible for rising suicide rates in East/Southeast Asia? A time-trend analysis for Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. Soc Sci Med. 2009;68:1322–1331
  8. Yang B, Lester D, Yang CH. Sociological and economic theories of suicide: a comparison of the U.S.A. and Taiwan. Soc Sci Med. 1992;34:333–334
  9. Chuang HL, Huang WC. A reexamination of sociological and economic theories of suicide: a comparison of the U.S.A. and Taiwan. Soc Sci Med. 1996;43:421–423
  10. Chuang H-L, Huang W-C. A re-examination of the suicide rates in Taiwan. Soc Ind Res. 2007;83:465–485
  11. Chuang H-L, Huang W-C. Economic and social correlates of regional suicide rates: a pooled cross-section and time-series analysis. J Socio-Econ. 1997;26:277–289
  12. Chao A, Law CK, Li PC, Yip SFP. Suicide in Taiwan. In:  Yip SFP editors. Suicide in Asia: causes and prevention. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; 2008;p. 61–79
  13. Chang SS, Sterne JA, Lu TH, Gunnell D. ‘Hidden’ suicides amongst deaths certified as undetermined intent, accident by pesticide poisoning and accident by suffocation in Taiwan. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol (in press). DOI: 10.1007/s00127-009-0049-x.
  14. Gunnell D, Lopatatzidis A, Dorling D, Wehner H, Southall H, Frankel S. Suicide and unemployment in young people. Analysis of trends in England and Wales, 1921–1995. Br J Psychiatry. 1999;175:263–270
  15. Lin JJ, Lu TH. Suicide mortality trends by sex, age and method in Taiwan, 1971–2005. BMC Public Health. 2008;8:6
  16. Directorate-General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, Taiwan . Yearbook of Manpower Survey Statistics. Available at: http://eng.stat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem = 6679&CtNode = 2205
  17. Directorate-General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, Taiwan . An introduction of Taiwanese Manpower Survey. Available at: http://www.stat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem = 16954&ctNode = 515
  18. Department of Statistics, Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan . Statistical Yearbook of Interior. Available at: http://www.moi.gov.tw/stat/year.aspx
  19. Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan. Taiwan Demographic Fact Books. Taipei: Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan, 1959–2007.
  20. Prais SJ, Winsten CB. Trend estimators and serial correlation. Technical Report 383, Cowles Commission discussion paper series. Chicago: Cowles Foundation; 1954;
  21. Cheng ATA, Chen THH, Chen C-C, Jenkins R. Psychosocial and psychiatric risk factors for suicide: case–control psychological autopsy study. Br J Psychiatry. 2000;177:360–365
  22. Tsai SL, Lan CF, Lee CH, Huang N, Chou YJ. Involuntary unemployment and mortality in Taiwan. J Formos Med Assoc. 2004;103:900–907
  23. Kposowa AJ. Unemployment and suicide: a cohort analysis of social factors predicting suicide in the US National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Psychol Med. 2001;31:127–138
  24. Qin P, Agerbo E, Mortensen PB. Suicide risk in relation to socioeconomic, demographic, psychiatric, and familial factors: a national register-based study of all suicides in Denmark, 1981–1997. Am J Psychiatry. 2003;160:765–772
  25. Blakely TA, Collings SC, Atkinson J. Unemployment and suicide. Evidence for a causal association?. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003;57:594–600
  26. Fergusson DM, Boden JM, Horwood LJ. Unemployment and suicidal behavior in a New Zealand birth cohort: a fixed effects regression analysis. Crisis. 2007;28:95–101
  27. Chan KP, Yip PS, Au J, Lee DT. Charcoal-burning suicide in post-transition Hong Kong. Br J Psychiatry. 2005;186:67–73
  28. Morrell S, Taylor R, Quine S, Kerr C. Suicide and unemployment in Australia 1907–1990. Soc Sci Med. 1993;36:749–756
  29. Gunnell D, Platt S, Hawton K. The economic crisis and suicide. BMJ. 2009;338:b1891

PII: S0033-3506(09)00354-0

doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2009.11.005

Public Health
Volume 124, Issue 1 , Pages 49-54 , January 2010

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution