TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2022//
TI  - The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on calls to a National Suicide Prevention Hotline in Taiwan: an analysis of time trend and characteristics of calls
JO  - Archives of suicide research
A1  - Liu, Guang-Yi
A1  - Chang, Yi-Han
A1  - Hwang, I.-Ting
A1  - Shaw, Fortune Fu-Tsung
A1  - Hsu, Wen-Yau
A1  - Hsu, Chia-Yueh
A1  - Gunnell, David
A1  - Chang, Shu-Sen
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - We investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on call volumes and call characteristics using data from a national crisis helpline. Data were extracted for 215,066 calls to Taiwan's national suicide prevention hotline (January 2018-May 2020). We used negative binomial regression to investigate changes in the weekly number of calls during the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak (January 21, 2020-May 25, 2020), relative to that expected according to the pre-pandemic trend. The call characteristics during the pandemic period (February 18, 2020-May 31, 2020) were compared between COVID-19 related vs unrelated calls. Higher-than-expected call volumes started from the 6th week of the pandemic and reached a peak in the 14th week, which was 38% (rate ratio = 1.38, 95% confidence interval 1.26-1.51) higher than that expected based on the pre-pandemic trend. The higher-than-expected call volumes were mainly attributable to higher-than-expected calls from non-suicidal and male callers. Calls in which COVID-19 was mentioned (13.2%) were more likely to be from male and first-time callers, occur outside 12 am-6 am, last less than 5 min, and were less likely to be from callers who had previous suicide attempts, recent suicidal ideation or suicide plans or actions than COVID-19 unrelated calls. Callers who made COVID-19 related calls were more likely to request information than other callers. Crisis helplines should strategically adapt to the increased need and callers' specific concerns related to the outbreak.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1381-1118
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2022.2114867
ID  - ref1
ER  -