Niederkrotenthaler Thomas, Till Benedikt, Kapusta Nestor D, Voracek Martin, Dervic Kanita, Sonneck Gernot
Medical University of Vienna, Center for Public Health, Department of Medical Psychology, Severingasse 9, Vienna, Austria.
Soc Sci Med. 2009 Oct;69(7):1085-90. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.07.041. Epub 2009 Aug 13.
This study aimed to investigate whether the risk of increased suicide occurrence after reports on suicide is associated with the social characteristics of the reported suicides and whether this varies with similarity between the reported suicides and suicides in the population. We collected reports on all 179 individual suicides named in the 13 largest Austrian nationwide newspapers from 1996 to 2006. Information on social status and sociodemographic characteristics of the reported suicides, on certainty of labelling the death as a suicide, and on the suicide methods applied were extracted from the articles. We conducted logistic regression analyses, with the increase of post-report suicides within 28 days after the reports as dependent variable. In model 1, the increase of suicides that matched the reported individual suicide with regard to age group, sex and suicide method was used as outcome variable. In model 2, the increase of suicides that were different from the reported suicide with regard to these characteristics was the outcome. In model 3, the post-report increase of total suicides was the dependent variable. Celebrity status of the reported suicide, age of the reported suicide between 30 and 64 years, and definitive labelling as a suicide were associated with an increased risk of a post-report increase of similar suicides; criminality (i.e. the individual was reported as suspected or convicted of crime) of the reported suicide was associated with a lower risk of a post-report increase. In dissimilar suicides, none of the variables was associated with a post-report increase of suicides. Celebrity status of the reported suicide was the only predictor of a post-report increase of total suicides. The findings support the hypothesis that social variables of reported suicides impact the risk of post-report copycat behaviour. Evidence of copycat effects seemed to be strongest in suicides that were similar to the respective model with regard to age group, sex, and suicide method.
本研究旨在调查自杀报道后自杀发生率上升的风险是否与所报道自杀事件的社会特征相关，以及这是否会因所报道自杀事件与总体人群中自杀事件的相似性而有所不同。我们收集了1996年至2006年奥地利13家全国性大报报道的所有179起个体自杀事件。从文章中提取了所报道自杀事件的社会地位和社会人口学特征、将死亡确定为自杀的确定性以及所采用的自杀方法等信息。我们进行了逻辑回归分析，将报道后28天内报道后自杀事件的增加作为因变量。在模型1中，将在年龄组、性别和自杀方法方面与所报道个体自杀事件相匹配的自杀事件增加作为结果变量。在模型2中，将在这些特征方面与所报道自杀事件不同的自杀事件增加作为结果。在模型3中，报道后总自杀事件的增加作为因变量。所报道自杀事件的名人身份、所报道自杀事件的年龄在30至64岁之间以及被明确确定为自杀与报道后类似自杀事件增加的风险增加相关；所报道自杀事件的犯罪行为（即该个体被报道涉嫌犯罪或被定罪）与报道后增加的风险较低相关。在不相似的自杀事件中，没有一个变量与报道后自杀事件的增加相关。所报道自杀事件的名人身份是报道后总自杀事件增加的唯一预测因素。这些发现支持了这样一种假设，即所报道自杀事件的社会变量会影响报道后模仿行为的风险。在年龄组、性别和自杀方法方面与各自模型相似的自杀事件中，模仿效应的证据似乎最为明显。
