Sinyor Mark, Williams Marissa, Zaheer Rabia, Loureiro Raisa, Pirkis Jane, Heisel Marnin J, Schaffer Ayal, Redelmeier Donald A, Cheung Amy H, Niederkrotenthaler Thomas
Department of Psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2021 Mar;55(3):268-276. doi: 10.1177/0004867420969805. Epub 2020 Nov 6.
A growing body of research has established that specific elements of suicide-related news reporting can be associated with increased or decreased subsequent suicide rates. This has not been systematically investigated for social media. The aim of this study was to identify associations between specific social media content and suicide deaths.
Suicide-related tweets ( = 787) geolocated to Toronto, Canada and originating from the highest level influencers over a 1-year period (July 2015 to June 2016) were coded for general, putatively harmful and putatively protective content. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine whether tweet characteristics were associated with increases or decreases in suicide deaths in Toronto in the 7 days after posting, compared with a 7-day control window.
Elements independently associated with increased subsequent suicide counts were tweets about the suicide of a local newspaper reporter (OR = 5.27, 95% CI = [1.27, 21.99]), 'other' social causes of suicide (e.g. cultural, relational, legal problems; OR = 2.39, 95% CI = [1.17, 4.86]), advocacy efforts (OR = 2.34, 95% CI = [1.48, 3.70]) and suicide death (OR = 1.52, 95% CI = [1.07, 2.15]). Elements most strongly independently associated with decreased subsequent suicides were tweets about murder suicides (OR = 0.02, 95% CI = [0.002, 0.17]) and suicide in first responders (OR = 0.17, 95% CI = [0.05, 0.52]).
These findings largely comport with the theory of suicide contagion and associations observed with traditional news media. They specifically suggest that tweets describing suicide deaths and/or sensationalized news stories may be harmful while those that present suicide as undesirable, tragic and/or preventable may be helpful. These results suggest that social media is both an important exposure and potential avenue for intervention.
越来越多的研究表明，自杀相关新闻报道的特定元素可能与随后自杀率的上升或下降有关。但社交媒体方面尚未对此进行系统研究。本研究旨在确定特定社交媒体内容与自杀死亡之间的关联。
对在一年时间内（2015年7月至2016年6月）定位到加拿大多伦多且来自最高级别有影响力人士的与自杀相关的推文（n = 787）进行编码，分析其一般内容、可能有害的内容和可能具有保护作用的内容。使用多变量逻辑回归来检验推文特征与发布后7天内多伦多自杀死亡人数的增加或减少是否相关，以7天的对照窗口作为比较。
与随后自杀人数增加独立相关的因素包括关于当地报纸记者自杀的推文（比值比 = 5.27，95%置信区间 = [1.27, 21.99]）、自杀的“其他”社会原因（如文化、人际关系、法律问题；比值比 = 2.39，95%置信区间 = [1.17, 4.86]）、宣传努力（比值比 = 2.34，95%置信区间 = [1.48, 3.70]）以及自杀死亡（比值比 = 1.52，95%置信区间 = [1.07, 2.15]）。与随后自杀人数减少最强烈独立相关的因素是关于谋杀自杀的推文（比值比 = 0.02，95%置信区间 = [0.002, 0.17]）和急救人员自杀的推文（比值比 = 0.17，95%置信区间 = [0.05, 0.52]）。
这些发现与自杀传染理论以及在传统新闻媒体中观察到的关联在很大程度上相符。它们特别表明，描述自杀死亡和/或耸人听闻的新闻报道的推文可能有害，而那些将自杀描述为不可取、悲惨和/或可预防的推文可能有益。这些结果表明，社交媒体既是一个重要的暴露因素，也是潜在的干预途径。
