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Abstract
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Lee et al1 have reported remarkable findings on the spatiotemporal patterns of suicides
in South Korea from 2009 to 2019. Here, the age-adjusted suicide rate per 100 000 people
has gradually and continuously decreased from 29.1 to 22.0. Using the geographic informa-
tion system, among the 229 regions, 27 hotspots were identified or detected from emerg-
ing hotspot analyses of the age-standardized suicide rate in South Korea. In addition, the
27 hotspots were divided into 2 new spots: 1 persistent spot, 23 sporadic spots, and 1 oscil-
lating spot. However, the reason why the 27 hotspots were identified in South Korea over
11 years has not been thoroughly explained. Moreover, the sociocultural factors that contrib-
uted to the identification or detection of these hotspots were not explained. Despite these
limitations, the findings suggest that these regions are potentially important management
areas for reducing suicide rates from the viewpoint of public mental health policy in South
Korea.
South Korea has reported the second-highest suicide rate after Lithuania over the 11 years,
among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. 2 Thus, sui-
cide has been regarded as the most important public mental health issue in South Korea.
Herein, by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea, the "National Suicide Prevention
Action Plan" has been established to decrease the suicide death rate to less than 20 per 100
000 and total suicide completions to less than 10 000 persons per year. To the best of our
knowledge, several systematic reviews have proposed restricting access to lethal means,
school-based awareness programs, proper pharmacological and psychological treatments
for depression, gatekeeper training programs, education of physicians, and Internet and
helpline support as evidence-based suicide prevention strategies...
Language: en |