ArticleJournal of affective disorders2023
The increase in suicide risk in older adults in Taiwan during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Positive association between Internet use and mental health among adults aged ≥50 years in 23 countries.Nature human behaviour · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of the Early COVID-19 Pandemic on Suicide Attempts and Suicide Deaths in South Korea, 2016-2020: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.Psychiatry investigation · 2024Article
- Suicide-Related Emergency Department Visits Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.Cureus · 2024Article
- The impact of the first year of COVID-19 pandemic on suicides in a collection of 27 EU-related countries.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Suicide prevention in Hong Kong: pushing boundaries while building bridges.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundStudies from Western countries indicated that older adults were more resilient than younger ones to deteriorating mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. As high late-life suicide rates have been reported in East Asia, it is possible that the pandemic impact might differ between East and West. We investigated the pandemic impact on age-specific suicide patterns in Taiwan.
methodsInterrupted time-series analysis was used to model the overall, and age-stratified, monthly suicide rates before (January 1st, 2017 to December 31st, 2019) and after (January 1st 2020 to December 31st 2021) the COVID-19 outbreak. Associations between confirmed COVID-19 deaths and suicide rates were also assessed.
resultsThere was a significant decrease in overall suicide rates after the COVID-19 outbreak (p < 0.01) (annual average rates per 100,000 population of 16.4 prior, 15.2 after). The overall decrease was driven by fewer suicide deaths in the young- and older-middle-aged groups (25-44 and 45-64 years). However suicide rates in younger-age group (<25 years) were already increasing pre-pandemic, a trend which continued after the outbreak. Suicide rates for older people (≥65 years) also increased along with the increasing number of COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic period. LIMITATIONS: Under-reporting and/or misclassification of suicides were possible.
conclusionsThe overall suicide rates in Taiwan did not change after the COVID-19 outbreak; however, suicide in older adults increased. Public health measures to reduce COVID-19 infections may have unintended and adverse consequences on the psychological wellbeing of older citizens.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.