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Abstract
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The period of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a 7% reduction in suicide among people aged 15+ years in Taiwan in 2020. The reduction in suicide appeared to be mainly attributable to the decreases in people aged 15-64 years and in the early months of the pandemic (March and April 2020), corresponding to the peak of COVID-19 cases. However, it is important to remain vigilant as the outbreak situation may change rapidly and impact population mental health and suicide risk.
Our finding is in keeping with those from several high-income countries3,4 but in contrast to the increase in suicide during the second half of 2020 in Japan.5,6 The difference could be attributable to the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak--Japan experienced a far more severe second wave of infections than the first wave. By contrast, Taiwan did not experience a second wave of local infection in 2020 following the first-wave outbreak--the increase in COVID-19 cases toward the end of 2020 was almost entirely due to imported cases. There was a total of only 799 COVID-19 cases and 7 deaths in Taiwan (population = 23 million) as of December 31, 2020. Taiwan's early success of containing the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 was attributable to measures such as early and strict border controls, contact tracing and quarantine, and physical distancing and facial masking7,8; no lockdowns or school and work closures, as imposed in many other countries, were implemented in Taiwan in 2020. A strong sense of success and safety, together with less impact on people's lives due to control measures such as lockdowns, may have led to the observed reduction in suicide in Taiwan. Furthermore, Taiwan experienced a rapid economic recovery--the unemployment rate decreased from 4.07% in May 2020 to 3.68% in December 2020; the non-elderly working population may have benefited the most from this.
In contrast to our findings, a systematic review3 of research into suicidal behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that the prevalence of suicide ideation increased in several countries during the pandemic period compared with the pre-pandemic period. Potential explanations for different findings about the impact of COVID-19 on suicide ideation and suicide death include selection bias in the survey studies of suicidal ideation,9 social cohesion or policies during the acute phase of the pandemic that may prevent the transition from suicidal ideation to suicidal act,4 reduced movement that may decrease access to lethal means for suicide, and stay-at-home orders that may reduce the opportunities of being alone and carrying out suicidal behavior at home.
Language: en |