TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - Local daily temperatures, thermal seasons, and suicide rates in Finland from 1974 to 2010
JO  - Environmental health and preventive medicine
A1  - Hiltunen, Laura
A1  - Haukka, Jari
A1  - Ruuhela, Reija
A1  - Suominen, Kirsi
A1  - Partonen, Timo
SP  - 286
EP  - 294
VL  - 19
IS  - 4
N2  - OBJECTIVES: Suicide peaks in late spring and October are still seen in Finland among many countries. Weather factors have been suggested as explanations for these peaks, although with inconsistent results. Since the exact timing of these peaks varies each year, the length of daylight and changes in it seem inadequate as an explanation. We hypothesized that ambient temperature and the timing of thermal seasons might associate with suicide rate. <br><br>METHODS: Suicide rates from three areas across Finland (N = 10,802) were analyzed with Poisson regression in six different models against variables calculated from the local ambient daily temperature, diurnal temperature range, and the duration from the onset of thermal seasons. Separate models for men and women were constructed. <br><br>RESULTS: The temperature change over 5 days associated with the suicide rate of men in Helsinki region, or in other words, the lower the suicide rate was, the higher the temperature decrease had been. For women, the results were more inconsistent. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Our study is in line with some earlier studies which imply that impairment of thermoregulation might exist among suicide victims.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1342-078X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12199-014-0391-9
ID  - ref1
ER  -