The impact of improving suicide death classification in South Korea: a comparison with Japan and Hong Kong.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The suicide rate of South Korea has increased dramatically during the past decades, as opposed to steadily decreasing trends in Japan and Hong Kong. Although the recent increase of suicide in South Korea may be related to changing socioeconomic conditions and other contextual factors, it may also reflect, in part, a reduction of misidentified suicide cases due to improving classification of manner of death.

Method

We compared the annual proportional change of suicide, undetermined death, and accidental death from South Korea with those of Japan and Hong Kong from 1992 to 2011; a greater proportional change of the manner-of-death categories during the period is indicative of a relatively less stable registration and hence a greater potential for misclassification

SUBMITTER: Chan CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4439106 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature