The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2011 Aug;65(8):733-6. doi: 10.1136/jech.2010.110726. Epub 2010 Nov 28.
Existing studies have described a strong correlation between unemployment rates and suicide rates, but the exact mechanisms through which they may interact with one another remain unknown.
This study examined the complex relationships between suicide rates and both regional unemployment rates and individual employment status during times of economic recession (2000-3) and recovery (2003-6) in Hong Kong.
Despite the strong correlation (0.86) between the unemployment rates and suicide rates for 2000-6, the rates of suicides within the employed and unemployed groups moved in the opposite direction from the overall population trend. That is, the suicide rate among the unemployed decreased during economic recession and increased during recovery.
It is important to be able to distinguish precisely between population-level concepts, such as rates, and individual-level characteristics, such as employment status, when considering the development of evidence-based suicide prevention strategies.
现有研究表明，失业率与自杀率之间存在很强的相关性，但它们相互作用的确切机制尚不清楚。
本研究考察了在香港经济衰退（2000-3 年）和复苏（2003-6 年）期间，自杀率与地区失业率和个人就业状况之间的复杂关系。
尽管 2000-6 年失业率与自杀率之间存在很强的相关性（0.86），但就业和失业群体中的自杀率与总人口趋势相反。也就是说，失业人群中的自杀率在经济衰退期间下降，在经济复苏期间上升。
在制定基于证据的自杀预防策略时，能够准确区分人口水平的概念（如比率）和个体水平的特征（如就业状况）非常重要。
