Seasonality of Chinese rural young suicide and its correlates

There had been few studies on seasonality of Chinese suicide especially for Chinese rural youths. In this research, we wanted to find the seasonal pattern and the relationship between personal and behavioral characteristics and seasonal variation of suicide.

We examined Chinese rural young adults aged 15 to 34 years who died by suicide using Psychological Autopsy method to gather information from the informants of suicide victims. Altogether 330 suicide victims were collected among which 144 were female and 186 were male. The χ(2) test was used for comparison, and the multiple logistic regressions and Odds Ratios were adopted to analyze the seasonal preferences of suicide victims.

Seasonal summer peak of suicide emerged in total population and in each subgroup. Four logistic regression models were constructed: in spring, six variables were included in the regression model, which were Gender (OR = 1.627), Pesticide Used (OR = 1.622), Life Events (OR = 2.764), Suicide Intent (OR = 1.641), Marital Status (OR = 0.574) and Family Conflicts (OR = 0.590); in summer, only Marital Status (OR = 1.927) was accepted; in autumn, four variables including Marital Problems (OR = 1.924), Trait Anxiety (OR = 1.758), Gender (OR = 0.518) and Religion (OR = 0.534) were retained; in winter, Pesticide Used (OR = 0.486) and Suicide Intent (OR = 0.614) were retained.

Seasonal variations of personal and behavioral characteristics, combined with social activities, might also play very important roles in suicide seasonality.