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The association of trends in charcoal-burning suicide with Google search and newspaper reporting in Taiwan: a time series analysis

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Abstract

Purpose

Some East/Southeast Asian countries have experienced a rapid increase in suicide by charcoal burning over the past decade. Media reporting and Internet use were thought to contribute to the epidemic. We investigated the association between method-specific suicide incidence and both Internet search volume and newspaper reporting in Taiwan.

Method

Weekly data for suicide, suicide-related Google search volume, and the number of articles reporting suicide in four major newspapers in Taiwan during 2008–2011 were obtained. Poisson autoregressive regression models were used to examine the associations between these variables.

Results

In the fully adjusted models, every 10 % increase in Google searches was associated with a 4.3 % [95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.1–7.6 %] increase in charcoal-burning suicide incidence in the same week, and a 3.8 % (95 % CI 0.4–7.2 %) increase in the following week. A one-article increase in the United Daily was associated with a 3.6 % (95 % CI 1.5–5.8 %) increase in charcoal-burning suicide in the same week. By contrast, non-charcoal-burning suicide was not associated with Google search volume, but was associated with the Apple Daily’s reporting in the preceding week.

Conclusions

We found that increased Internet searches for charcoal-burning suicide appeared to be associated with a subsequent increase in suicide by this method. The prevention of suicide using emerging methods may include monitoring and regulating online information that provides details of these methods as well as encouraging Internet service providers to provide help-seeking information.

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Acknowledgments

SSC was supported by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, Taiwan (Grant number RG014-P-12). PSFY was supported by a grant from the University of Hong Kong (HKU 7003-SPPR-12). YYC was supported by a grant from Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant number MOST 103-2314-B-532-003-MY2) and a grant from the Department of Health, Taipei City Government (Grant number 10401-62-011).

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Health Policy and Management, and Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shu-Sen Chang

  2. Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Shu-Sen Chang, Qijin Cheng & Paul S. F. Yip

  3. Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Shu-Sen Chang & Paul S. F. Yip

  4. School of Economics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Simon Sai Man Kwok

  5. Taipei City Psychiatric Center, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ying-Yeh Chen

  6. Department of Public Health, Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ying-Yeh Chen

  7. Taipei City Psychiatric Center, 309 Songde Road, XinYi District, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ying-Yeh Chen

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  1. Shu-Sen Chang
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  2. Simon Sai Man Kwok
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  3. Qijin Cheng
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Correspondence to Ying-Yeh Chen.

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Chang, SS., Kwok, S.S.M., Cheng, Q. et al. The association of trends in charcoal-burning suicide with Google search and newspaper reporting in Taiwan: a time series analysis. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 50, 1451–1461 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-015-1057-7

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