The influence of media reporting of the suicide of a celebrity on suicide rates: a population-based study
The influence of media reporting of the suicide of a celebrity on suicide rates: a population-based study
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DOI：
10.1093/ije/dym196
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发表时间：
2007-12-01
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Chen, Tony H. H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cheng, Andrew T. A.;Hawton, Keith;Chen, Tony H. H.
背景：媒体报道娱乐名人自杀事件的影响可能会由于模仿效应而影响自杀率。方法以2003-2005年台湾地区10 945例自杀个案为研究对象，调查媒体报道一位电视名人自杀事件对自杀事件的影响。结果在控制了季节变化、历年、温度、湿度和失业率等因素后，自杀人数在媒体报道后的4周内显著增加(相对危险度=1.17，95%CI 1.04~1.31)。增加的是男性(相对风险=1.30，95%可信区间1.14-1.50)和使用与电视演员相同的高致命性方法(绞刑)的个人(相对风险=1.51，95%可信区间1.25-1.83)。结论随着媒体对名人自杀事件的广泛报道，自杀事件也随之增多，具有强烈的模特效应。这一结果进一步支持了需要更有节制地报告自杀事件，以此作为自杀预防战略的一部分，以减少模仿效应。
Background The impact of media reporting of suicides of entertainment celebrities may affect suicide rates due to an imitation effect. We investigated the impact on suicides of the media reporting of the suicide of a male television celebrity.Methods All suicides during 2003-2005 in Taiwan (n = 10 945) were included in this study. A Poisson time series autoregression analysis was conducted to examine whether there was an increase in suicides during the 4-week period after extensive media reporting of the celebrity suicide.Results After controlling for seasonal variation, calendar year, temperature, humidity and unemployment rate, there was a marked increase in the number of suicides during the 4-week period after media reporting (relative risk = 1.17, 95% Cl 1.04-1.31). The increase was in men (relative risk=1.30, 95% Cl 1.14-1.50) and for the individuals using the same highly lethal method (hanging) as the TV actor did (relative risk=1.51, 95% Cl 1.25-1.83). However, the age groups in which the increase occurred were younger than the age of the celebrity.Conclusions The extensive media reporting of the celebrity suicide was followed by an increase in suicides with a strong implication of a modelling effect. The results provide further support for the need for more restrained reporting of suicides as part of suicide prevention strategies to decrease the imitation effect.