The COVID-19 Pandemic and Youth Suicide: 2020–2021
| Autor: | Patricia G. Schnitzer, Heather Dykstra, Abigael Collier |
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| Rok vydání: | 2023 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Pediatrics. 151 |
| ISSN: | 1098-4275 0031-4005 |
| DOI: | 10.1542/peds.2022-058716 |
| Popis: | BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESSuicide is a leading cause of death among youth in the United States. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic raised concerns that suicide rates will increase. The National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System documents circumstances of child deaths reviewed by multidisciplinary teams. In April 2021, a question asking whether COVID-19 directly or indirectly impacted the child’s death was added to the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System. The objective of this study was to identify factors related to suicide deaths among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.METHODSThis exploratory study of youth aged 10 to 17 years occurring during 2020 to 2021 compared demographic and incident characteristics, life stressors, social/mental health histories, and pandemic-related disruptions to school, health, and mental health for COVID-19–impacted suicides and non-COVID-19–impacted suicides using descriptive statistics. χ2 statistics assessed statistical significance in differences across the 2 groups.RESULTSA total of 552 suicides were included for study. Higher proportions of COVID-19–impacted suicides (n = 144) were by hanging (51% vs 40%) and occurred in suburban areas (57% vs 45%) compared with non–COVID-19–impacted suicides (n = 408). COVID-19–impacted youth also experienced significantly more isolation (60% vs 14%), school problems (42% vs 19%), depression (43% vs 24%), and/or anxiety disorder (23% vs 12%) diagnoses.CONCLUSIONSA subset of youth experienced significant effects of the pandemic and associated measures implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. They were proportionally more likely to experience isolation, school and mental health care disruptions, behavior changes, and severe emotional distress; all signs of increased risk for suicide. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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