The association between the meteorological factors and the daily number of patients who visited an emergency department after suicide attempts

¹Department of Emergency Medicine, Incheon St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, Korea
²Department of Emergency Medicine, Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

Correspondence

Juneyoung Lee ,Tel: 032-280-6116, Fax: 032-280-6120, Email: phantomspike@gmail.com,

Received: June 29, 2020; Revised: September 7, 2020 Accepted: November 11, 2020. Published online: August 31, 2021.

ABSTRACT

Objective:
This study was conducted to investigate the association between meteorological factors and the number of patients who visited an emergency department after suicide attempts daily.
Method:
We conducted a retrospective analysis study of 359 patients who visited an emergency department after suicide attempts from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2016. We used the Poisson regression model to analyze the association.
Results:
Three hundred and fifty-nine patients were enrolled in this study. According to the Poisson regression analysis, the average temperature on the day of visit (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.038; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.018-1.058), relative humidity (aOR, 0.987; 95% CI, 0.976-0.997), and solar radiation (aOR, 0.965; 95% CI, 0.939-0.993) were meteorological factors associated with the daily number of patients in the non-violent suicidal attempt group.
Conclusion:
This study showed that meteorological factors are associated with the number of patients who visited an emergency department after suicide attempts daily.

Key words: Meteorological concepts; Suicide; Risk factors