ArticleScientific reports2021
Correlating heatwaves and relative humidity with suicide (fatal intentional self-harm).
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 29 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Extreme heat and mental health: systematic review and qualitative investigation of risk and protective factors.Psychological medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Excess suicide attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic and social disparities in South Korea.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Exploring linkages between drought and HIV treatment adherence in Africa: a systematic review.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2022Pooled it
- Impact of climate on mental health among university students: a population-based study across 43 cities in China.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Global burden, risk factors and projections of self-harm mortality in adults aged 65+ years: A 60-year trend analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.General psychiatry · 2026Article
- Independent and interactive effects of wet bulb globe temperature and air pollution exposures on suicide mortality.Environment international · 2026Article
- Associations of heat exposure with mental health and suicide in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Npj mental health research · 2026Article
- Article
- 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
- Lethal Heat and Humidity Events.Annual review of environment and resources · 2025Article
- Exploring support systems for young people with climate anxiety: Suggestions from Brazil.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- Association of fine particulate matter and wet-bulb globe temperature with depression incidence in a community-based longitudinal study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Impact of Seasonality on Mental Health Disorders: A Narrative Review and Extension of the Immunoseasonal Theory.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Youth suicidality risk relative to ambient temperature and heatwaves across climate zones: A time series analysis of emergency department presentations in New South Wales, Australia.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Burning Question: How Does Our Brain Process Positive and Negative Cues Associated with Thermosensation?Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Review
- Meteorological factors, ambient air pollution, and daily hospital admissions for depressive disorder in Harbin: A time-series study.World journal of psychiatry · 2023Article
- The 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: the imperative for a health-centred response in a world facing irreversible harms.Lancet (London, England) · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Empirical evidence suggests that the effects of anthropogenic climate change, and heat in particular, could have a significant impact on mental health. This article investigates the correlation between heatwaves and/or relative humidity and suicide (fatal intentional self-harm) on a global scale. The covariance between heat/humidity and suicide was modelled using a negative binomial Poisson regression with data from 60 countries between 1979-2016. Statistically significant increases and decreases in suicide were found, as well as many cases with no significant correlation. We found that relative humidity showed a more significant correlation with suicide compared to heatwaves and that both younger age groups and women seemed to be more significantly affected by changes in humidity and heatwave counts in comparison with the rest of the population. Further research is needed to provide a larger and more consistent basis for epidemiological studies; to understand better the connections among heat, humidity and mental health; and to explore in more detail which population groups are particularly impacted and why.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.