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Cited by 209Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesCOVID-19 and Mental HealthCOVID-19 epidemiological studies

Do suicide rates in children and adolescents change during school closure in Japan? The acute effect of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic on child and adolescent mental health

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Isumi, Aya, Doi, Satomi, Yamaoka, Yui, Takahashi, Kunihiko, Fujiwara, Takeo·2020·Child Abuse & Neglect
DOI 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104680PMC PMC7443207
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Abstract

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has severely impacted the lives of children and adolescents. School closure, one of the critical changes during the first COVID-19 wave, caused decreases in social contacts and increases in family time for children and adolescents. This can have both positive and negative influences on suicide, which is one of the robust mental health outcomes. However, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children and adolescents in terms of suicide is unknown.Objective This study investigates the acute effect of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide among children and adolescents during school closure in Japan.Data Total number of suicides per month among children and adolescents under 20 years old between January 2018 and May 2020.Methods Poisson regression was used to examine whether suicide increased or decreased during school closure, which spanned from March to May 2020, compared with the same period in 2018 and 2019. Robustness check was conducted using all data from January 2018 to May 2020. Negative binomial regression, a model with overdispersion, was also performed.Results We found no significant change in suicide rates during the school closure (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.81 to 1.64). We found the main effect of month, that is, suicides significantly increased suicides in May (IRR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.78) compared to March, but the interaction terms of month and school closure were not significant (p > 0.1).Conclusions As preliminary findings, this study suggests that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has not significantly affected suicide rates among children and adolescents during the school closure in Japan.

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  • The review identified five common thematic recommendations for preventing suicidal deaths and attempts across included studies: systematic suicide screening, facilitating communication and access to interventions, mental health and psychological well-being interventions, economic mitigation measures, and regulation of media reporting.

    “Of them, we have identified common thematic recommendations for preventing suicidal deaths and suicidal attempts, and those were; 1) Develop a systematic suicide screening process and increase the suicide risk screening [23, 25, 28, 30, 37].”

    From Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicidal attempts and death rates: a systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [25]

  • Nine included studies provided recommendations for preventing suicide/suicide attempts.

    “Recommendations for preventing suicide/suicide attempts were provided in nine studies [23, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33, 35, 37].”

    From Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicidal attempts and death rates: a systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [25]

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Authors
Isumi, A., Doi, S., Yamaoka, Y., Takahashi, K., & Fujiwara, T.
Affiliations
Tokyo Medical and Dental University (JP)
Corresponding author
Fujiwara, Takeo
ORCID
Venue
Child Abuse & Neglect
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-12
Volume
110
Issue
Pt 2
Pages
104680
ISSN
0145-2134 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104680
PMC
PMC7443207
OpenAlex
W3080854397
Cited by
205
References
18
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 63 · 2021: 55 · 2020: 8
FWCI
16.71
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Child Abuse & Neglect (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
Keywords
child suicide, adolescent suicide, school closures, COVID-19 pandemic, first wave of COVID-19, child and adolescent mental health, suicide rates, Japan
MeSH terms
COVID-19, Adolescent, Psychology, Adolescent, Child, Psychology, Child, Female, Humans, Japan, Male, Mental Health, Schools, Suicide, Young Adult, Pandemics

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