Psychosocial and pandemic-related circumstances of suicide deaths in 2020: Evidence from the National Violent Death Reporting System.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

To describe and explore variation in 'pandemic-related circumstances' among suicide decedents during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We identified pandemic-related circumstances using decedents' text narratives in the 2020 National Violent Death Reporting System. We use time-series analysis to compare other psychosocial characteristics (e.g., mental health history, interpersonal difficulties, financial strain) of decedents pre-pandemic (2017/2018: n = 56,968 suicide and n = 7,551 undetermined deaths) to those in 2020 (n = 31,887 suicide and n = 4,100 undetermined). We characterize common themes in the narratives with pandemic-related circumstances using topic modeling, and explore variation in topics by age and other psychosocial circumstances.

Re

SUBMITTER: Mezuk B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11469549 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature