Association Between Prosuicide Website Searches Through Google and Suicide Death in the United States From 2010 to 2021: Lagged Time-Series Analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

 The rate of suicide death has been increasing, making understanding risk factors of growing importance. While exposure to explicit suicide-related media, such as description of means in news reports or sensationalized fictional portrayal, is known to increase population suicide rates, it is not known whether prosuicide website forums, which often promote or facilitate information about fatal suicide means, are related to change in suicide deaths overall or by specific means.

Objective

 This study aimed to estimate the association of the frequency of Google searches of known prosuicide web forums and content with death by suicide over time in the United States, by age, sex, and means of death.

Methods

 National monthly Google search data for names of common

SUBMITTER: Kelsall NC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11316151 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature