Citation

Kariippanon K, Wilson CJ, McCarthy TJ, Kolves K. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019; 16(15): e16152708.

Affiliation

Australian Institute for Suicide Research & Prevention, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention, Griffith University, Nathan QLD 4222, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph16152708

PMID

31362465

Abstract

Hanging is a common method of suicide in several countries. Even as global suicide rates decrease, there is no evidence of suicides by hanging declining. There is limited research by type of hanging, and only a few papers present suicide by hanging from ceiling fans. Our paper proposes a research agenda that will: specify the size of the problem of hanging by ceiling fan (Stage 1: Surveillance), use standard engineering product development processes to modify ceiling fans for reducing their lethal capacity (Stage 2: Design Testing and Redevelopment), and examine the resulting beta- and release-build fans for safety and potential to reduce suicide in community samples (Stage 3: Evaluation).

Language: en

Keywords

ceiling fan; engineering innovation; hanging; means restriction; suicide