Suicide rates in Japan have risen sharply in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, Reuters Health reports a survey found.
The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a stark reversal of the February-June decline of 14%, according to the study by researchers at Hong Kong University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.
“Unlike normal economic circumstances, this pandemic disproportionately affects the psychological health of children, adolescents and females (especially housewives),” the authors wrote in the study. The early decline in suicides was affected by such factors as government subsidies, reduced working hours and school closure, the study found.
But the decline reversed – with the suicide rate rising 37% for women, about five times the increase among men – as the prolonged pandemic hurt industries where women predominate, increasing the burden on working mothers, while domestic violence increased, the report said.
The study, based on Japan Health Ministry data from November 2016 to October 2020, found the child suicide rate rose 49% in the second wave, corresponding to the period after a nationwide school closure.
Study details
Increase in suicide following an initial decline during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
Takanao Tanaka, Shohei Okamoto
Published in Nature Human Behaviour on 15 January 2021
Abstract
There is increasing concern that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could harm psychological health and exacerbate suicide risk. Here, based on month-level records of suicides covering the entire Japanese population in 1,848 administrative units, we assessed whether suicide mortality changed during the pandemic. Using difference-in-difference estimation, we found that monthly suicide rates declined by 14% during the first 5 months of the pandemic (February to June 2020). This could be due to a number of complex reasons, including the government’s generous subsidies, reduced working hours and school closure. By contrast, monthly suicide rates increased by 16% during the second wave (July to October 2020), with a larger increase among females (37%) and children and adolescents (49%). Although adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic may remain in the long term, its modifiers (such as government subsidies) may not be sustained. Thus, effective suicide prevention—particularly among vulnerable populations—should be an important public health consideration.
[link url="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-suicides/japans-suicides-jump-16-in-covid-19-second-wave-after-fall-in-first-wave-study-idINKBN29L0ER"]Full Reuters Health report[/link]
[link url="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-01042-z"]Nature Human Behaviour study[/link]