Department of General Practice and Family Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2012 Nov;66(11):1037-42. doi: 10.1136/jech-2011-200707. Epub 2012 Apr 21.
A growing number of studies indicate that sensationalist reporting of suicide is associated with increases in suicide rates, but in the light of some negative findings, the issue has remained controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the best current evidence on the association between celebrity suicide stories and subsequent suicides.
Literature searches of six data sources (Medline, Psychlit, Communication Abstracts, Education Resources Information Center, Dissertation Abstracts and Australian Public Affairs Database (APAIS)) were conducted. Studies were included if they (1) adopted an ecological design, (2) focused on celebrity suicide, (3) had completed suicide as outcome variable, (4) analysed suicide rates across all suicide methods, (5) used data from after World War II and (6) satisfied basic quality criteria.
10 studies with totally 98 suicides by celebrities met the criteria. The pooled estimate indicated a change in suicide rates (suicides per 100 000 population) of 0.26 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.43) in the month after a celebrity suicide. There was substantial heterogeneity between studies, which was explained by the type of celebrity (entertainment elite vs others) and the region of study, as indicated by mixed-effects meta-regression. The region-of-study-specific effect of reporting a suicide by an entertainment celebrity was 0.64 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.73) in North America, 0.58 (95% CI 0.47 to 0.68) in Asia, 0.36 (95% CI -0.10 to 0.61) in Australia and 0.68 (95% CI 0.51 to 0.85) in Europe. There was no indication of publication bias.
Reports on celebrity suicide are associated with increases in suicides. Study region and celebrity type appear to have an impact on the effect size.
越来越多的研究表明，耸人听闻的自杀报道与自杀率的上升有关，但由于一些负面发现，这个问题仍然存在争议。本研究旨在评估有关名人自杀故事与随后自杀之间关联的最佳现有证据。
对六个数据源（Medline、Psychlit、Communication Abstracts、Education Resources Information Center、Dissertation Abstracts 和澳大利亚公共事务数据库（APAIS））进行了文献检索。如果研究（1）采用生态设计，（2）关注名人自杀，（3）以自杀为结局变量，（4）分析所有自杀方法的自杀率，（5）使用第二次世界大战后的数据，以及（6）满足基本质量标准，则将其纳入研究。
10 项研究共涉及 98 位名人自杀，符合标准。汇总估计表明，名人自杀后一个月的自杀率（每 10 万人的自杀人数）变化为 0.26（95%CI 0.09 至 0.43）。研究之间存在很大的异质性，这可以通过混合效应元回归来解释，表明异质性是由名人类型（娱乐精英与其他）和研究区域引起的。报道娱乐名人自杀的研究区域特异性效应在北美的为 0.64（95%CI 0.55 至 0.73），在亚洲为 0.58（95%CI 0.47 至 0.68），在澳大利亚为 0.36（95%CI -0.10 至 0.61），在欧洲为 0.68（95%CI 0.51 至 0.85）。没有迹象表明存在发表偏倚。
关于名人自杀的报道与自杀人数的增加有关。研究区域和名人类型似乎对效应大小有影响。
