University of North Texas, USA.
J Affect Disord. 2013 May;147(1-3):385-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2012.08.018. Epub 2012 Sep 11.
Railway and metro suicides constitute a major problem in many parts of the world. Japan has experienced an increase in the number of suicides by persons diving in front of an oncoming train in the last several years. Some major railway operators in Japan have begun installing blue light-emitting-diode (LED) lamps on railway platforms and at railway crossings as a method of deterring suicides, which is less costly than installing platform screen doors. However, the effectiveness of the blue lights in this regard has not yet been proven.
This study evaluates the effect of blue lights on the number of suicides at 71 train stations by using panel data between 2000 and 2010 from a railway company in a metropolitan area of Japan. We use a regression model and compare the number of suicides before and after and with and without the intervention by the blue light. We used the number of suicides at 11 stations with the intervention as the treatment group and at the other 60 stations without the intervention as the control group.
Our regression analysis shows that the introduction of blue lights resulted in a 84% decrease in the number of suicides (CI: 14-97%).
The analysis relies on data from a single railroad company and it does not examine the underlying suicide-mitigation mechanism of blue lights.
As blue lights are easier and less expensive to install than platform screen doors, they can be a cost-effective method for suicide prevention.
铁路和地铁自杀在世界许多地区构成了一个主要问题。在过去几年中，日本经历了因有人跳入迎面而来的火车而自杀的人数增加。日本一些主要的铁路运营商已经开始在铁路月台和铁路道口安装蓝色发光二极管（LED）灯，作为一种阻止自杀的方法，其成本低于安装月台屏蔽门。然而，蓝色灯光在这方面的有效性尚未得到证实。
本研究使用日本一个大都市地区的一家铁路公司在 2000 年至 2010 年期间的面板数据，评估了 71 个火车站的蓝色灯光对自杀人数的影响。我们使用回归模型，比较了干预前后以及有无蓝色灯光干预的自杀人数。我们将有干预的 11 个车站的自杀人数作为治疗组，将其他 60 个没有干预的车站作为对照组。
我们的回归分析表明，引入蓝色灯光导致自杀人数减少了 84%（置信区间：14-97%）。
该分析依赖于单个铁路公司的数据，并未检验蓝色灯光的潜在自杀缓解机制。
由于蓝色灯光比月台屏蔽门更容易安装且成本更低，因此它们可能是一种预防自杀的具有成本效益的方法。
