Department of Emergency Medicine, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
J Korean Med Sci. 2021 Aug 30;36(34):e243. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e243.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may increase the total number of suicide attempts and the proportion of low-rescue attempts. We investigated the factors affecting low-rescue suicide attempts using the risk-rescue rating scale (RRRS) among patients who visited the emergency department (ED) after attempting suicide before or during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We retrospectively investigated suicide attempts made by patients who visited our ED from March 2019 to September 2020. Patients were classified into two groups based on whether they attempted suicide before or during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on demographic variables, psychiatric factors, suicide risk factors and rescue factors were collected and compared.
A total of 518 patients were included in the study, 275 (53.1%) of whom attempted suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proportion of patients who made low-rescue suicide attempts differed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (37.1% vs. 28.8%) ( = 0.046). However, the proportions of patients who made high-risk suicide attempts and high-lethality suicide attempts did not significantly differ between the two periods. The independent risk factors for low-rescue suicide attempts were age and the COVID-19 pandemic (odds ratio [OR], 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-1.03; = 0.006) (OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.03-2.25; = 0.034).
The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with low-rescue suicide attempts in patients visiting the ED after attempting suicide. Thus, we need to consider the implementation of measures to prevent low-rescue suicide attempts during similar infectious disease crises.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行可能会增加自杀未遂的总数和低救援尝试的比例。我们使用风险救援评分量表（RRRS）调查了 COVID-19 大流行前后在急诊科（ED）就诊的自杀未遂患者中影响低救援自杀未遂的因素。
我们回顾性调查了 2019 年 3 月至 2020 年 9 月期间在我院急诊科就诊的自杀未遂患者。根据患者是否在 COVID-19 大流行前后尝试自杀，将其分为两组。收集并比较人口统计学变量、精神因素、自杀风险因素和救援因素的数据。
共有 518 名患者纳入研究，其中 275 名（53.1%）在 COVID-19 大流行期间自杀未遂。COVID-19 大流行前后尝试低救援自杀未遂的患者比例不同（37.1% vs. 28.8%）（ = 0.046）。然而，两个时期高风险自杀未遂和高致死性自杀未遂的患者比例无显著差异。低救援自杀未遂的独立危险因素为年龄和 COVID-19 大流行（优势比[OR]，1.02；95%置信区间[CI]，1.00-1.03； = 0.006）（OR，1.52；95% CI，1.03-2.25； = 0.034）。
COVID-19 大流行与急诊科就诊的自杀未遂患者低救援自杀未遂有关。因此，我们需要考虑在类似传染病危机期间实施预防低救援自杀未遂的措施。
