ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2019
Suicide and Ambient Temperature: A Multi-Country Multi-City Study.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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85 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 175 citations in OpenAlex.
- Building the model: a review of input structures in extreme temperature-health.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2026Pooled it
- A Systematic Literature Review of the Impact of Climate Change on the Global Demand for Psychiatric Services.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Excess suicide attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic and social disparities in South Korea.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Suicide and Associations with Air Pollution and Ambient Temperature: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Global, Regional, and National Burden of Self-Harm and Projections to 2030: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Health science reports · 2026Article
- The physiology of survival: Heat.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
- Independent and interactive effects of wet bulb globe temperature and air pollution exposures on suicide mortality.Environment international · 2026Article
- Projecting and valuing climate change impacts on anxiety and depression in the contiguous USA: a damage function approach.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2026Article
- The trend of self-harm incidence rates among adolescents in low- and lower-middle-income countries and its associated contextual factors.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- The Effects of Air Pollution on Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review.Environmental health insights · 2026Review
- Temperature extremes contribute to suicide-related help-seeking through multiple pathways: Evidence from crisis hotline data (2019-2023).PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- The neuropsychiatric toll of rising temperatures on women's health in low-income and middle-income countries: a scoping review.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Projection of temperature-related severe injuries under climate change: a nationwide study of South Korea.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Comparing mortality burdens attributable to ambient temperature and seasonal variation across major causes of death in Spain.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2025Article
- Too Hot to Ignore: The Escalating Health Impact of Heatwaves in Brazil.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Experiences of extreme weather and mental health in climate-vulnerable communities: results from a large-scale survey of women living in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Burden of mortality attributable to diurnal temperature range in Thailand: a nationwide case-crossover analysis from 2007 to 2021.Tropical medicine and health · 2025Article
- Fine particulate matter, suicide, and urbanicity in South Korea: A nationwide time-stratified cases-crossover study.iScience · 2025Article
- Ambient Temperature and Suicide Risk in Thailand: Evidence from Chiang Mai and Bangkok Provinces.Environment & health (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
26 authors at 19 institutions in 11 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious literature suggests that higher ambient temperature may play a role in increasing the risk of suicide. However, no multi-country study has explored the shape of the association and the role of moderate and extreme heat across different locations.
objectivesWe examined the short-term temperature-suicide relationship using daily time-series data collected for 341 locations in 12 countries for periods ranging from 4 to 40 y.
methodsWe conducted a two-stage meta-analysis. First, we performed location-specific time-stratified case-crossover analyses to examine the temperature-suicide association for each location. Then, we used a multivariate meta-regression to combine the location-specific lag-cumulative nonlinear associations across all locations and by country.
resultsA total of 1,320,148 suicides were included in this study. Higher ambient temperature was associated with an increased risk of suicide in general, and we observed a nonlinear association (inverted J-shaped curve) with the highest risk at 27°C. The relative risk (RR) for the highest risk was 1.33 (95% CI: 1.30, 1.36) compared with the risk at the first percentile. Country-specific results showed that the nonlinear associations were more obvious in northeast Asia (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan). The temperature with the highest risk of suicide ranged from the 87th to 88th percentiles in the northeast Asian countries, whereas this value was the 99th percentile in Western countries (Canada, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the United States) and South Africa, where nearly linear associations were estimated. The country-specific RRs ranged from 1.31 (95% CI: 1.19, 1.44) in the United States to 1.65 (95% CI: 1.40, 1.93) in Taiwan, excluding countries where the results were substantially uncertain. DISCUSSION: Our findings showed that the risk of suicide increased with increasing ambient temperature in many countries, but to varying extents and not necessarily linearly. This temperature-suicide association should be interpreted cautiously, and further evidence of the relationship and modifying factors is needed. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4898.
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