Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, South Korea.
Crisis. 2011;32(1):5-14. doi: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000046.
Suicide is one of the leading causes of mortality in both South Korea and Japan.
The study aims to compare the descriptive epidemiology of suicide over the last two decades (1985-2006) and to explore the conditions associated with the different distribution of suicides in both countries.
Age-standardized suicide rates were obtained from the OECD Health Data 2009. Age-specific suicide rates for the age groups were calculated from the WHO Mortality Database. Suicide methods were identified based on ICD-10.
Through 1980-2000, Japan showed consistently higher suicide rates compared to Korea. However, from the mid-1990s, Korea showed an acute increase of suicides and finally surpassed Japan; the age-standardized suicide rate of Korea increased from 10.2 (per 100,000) in 1985 to 21.5 in 2006, while it slightly increased from 18.4 to 19.1 in Japan. The highest age-specific suicide rate was observed among Japanese men aged 45-64 years and Korean men aged over 64 years. The increase of elderly suicides among Korean women was notable. The gender ratio increased in Japan and decreased in Korea, respectively. The preferred suicide methods were hanging and pesticide poisoning in Korea and hanging in Japan. Because of the limited number of observations, hypothesis testing of specific risk factors was not possible.
Age and gender distribution of suicide rates differed considerably between the two countries. Welfare protection throughout the life course in both countries, and pesticide regulation in Korea would be helpful in reducing the burden of suicide mortality in both countries, even if the social values could not be changed in a short time.
自杀是韩国和日本两国主要的死亡原因之一。
本研究旨在比较过去二十年（1985-2006 年）自杀的描述性流行病学，并探讨与两国自杀分布不同相关的条件。
从经合组织卫生数据 2009 年中获得年龄标准化的自杀率。根据世界卫生组织死亡率数据库计算了各年龄组的特定年龄自杀率。根据 ICD-10 确定自杀方法。
在 1980-2000 年期间，日本的自杀率始终高于韩国。但是，从 20 世纪 90 年代中期开始，韩国的自杀人数急剧增加，最终超过了日本；韩国的年龄标准化自杀率从 1985 年的 10.2（每 10 万人）增加到 2006 年的 21.5，而日本从 18.4 略微增加到 19.1。日本 45-64 岁男性和韩国 65 岁以上男性的特定年龄自杀率最高。韩国老年女性自杀人数的增加引人注目。日本的性别比例增加，韩国的性别比例下降。韩国的首选自杀方法是上吊和农药中毒，日本的首选自杀方法是上吊。由于观察到的数量有限，无法对特定风险因素进行假设检验。
两国的自杀率年龄和性别分布有很大差异。两国在整个生命周期中的福利保护，以及韩国对农药的监管，将有助于减轻两国自杀死亡率的负担，即使社会价值观在短时间内无法改变。
