台灣地區自殺死亡率相關因子探討

An Exploration of th Factors Influencing Suicide in Taiwan

背景及目的：台灣地區自殺死亡長久以來均為國人十大死因之一。自殺死亡率相關因子探討是衛生政策決策的重要參考依據。本研究的目的在於探討社會經濟變數與自殺死亡率之關聯，藉以提供相關自殺防治的重要訊息。方法：本研究利用向量誤差模型進行自殺死亡率的時間序列分析。結果：失業率、有偶率以及人均GDP（所得）與標準化自殺死亡率存在長期Granger因果關係。當失業率增加1％，將使得標準化自殺死亡率上升0.68％；有偶率增加1％，將使得標準化自殺死亡率下降8.77％；人均GDP下降1%，將使得標準化自殺死亡率增加0.37％。結論：研究結果支持家庭因素（如，婚姻）的對自殺死亡的保護效果將大於經濟因素（如，失業率、所得等）危害效果的論述。

Background & Purpose: Suicide has been listed as one of Taiwanese ten major causes of mortality for many years. Exploring the factors that influence suicide is important in the determination of mental health policy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between socioeconomic factors and suicide in order to provide some information for suicide prevention. Methods: This study utilized a vector error correction model along with time series analysis. Results: The results showed that there was Granger causality between the standardized suicide rate and the unemployment rate, the rate of marriage in the population, and GDP per capital. An increase of 1% in the unemployment rate will lead to an increase of 0.68% in the standardized suicide rate. A decrease of 1% in GDP per capital will lead to an increase of 0.37% in the standardized suicide rate. The standardized suicide rate will decrease by 8.77% if the rate of marriage in the population increases by 1%. Conclusion: We conclude that the prevention of suicide by family support would be more effective than improving socioeconomic factors such as unemployment and income.