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. 2017 Jun 9;14(6):623.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph14060623.

Stock Market Fluctuations and Self-Harm among Children and Adolescents in Hong Kong

Wilfred Hing-Sang Wong  1 , James Chun-Yin Lee  2 , Frederick Ka-Wing Ho  3 , Tim Man-Ho Li  4 , Patrick Ip  5 , Chun-Bong Chow  6
Affiliations

Stock Market Fluctuations and Self-Harm among Children and Adolescents in Hong Kong

Wilfred Hing-Sang Wong et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Although a few studies investigated the impact of stock market fluctuations on population health, the question of whether stock market fluctuations have an impact on self-harm in children and adolescents remain unanswered. This study therefore investigated the association between stock market fluctuations and self-harm among children and adolescents in Hong Kong. Daily self-harm attendance records were retrieved from all 18 local Accident and Emergency Departments (AED) from 2001 to 2012. 4931 children and adolescents who committed self-harm were included. The results indicated positive correlation between daily change in stock market index, Hang Seng Index (∇HSI, per 300 points), and daily self-harm incident risk of children and adolescents, without time lag between the two. The incident risk ratio for ∇HSI was 1.09 (p = 0.0339) in children and 1.06 (p = 0.0246) in adolescents. Importantly, non-trading days were found to impose significant protective effect in both groups against self-harm risk. Our results showed that stock market fluctuations were related to self-harm behaviors in children and adolescents. Parents and professionals should be educated about the potential harm of stock market fluctuations and the importance of effective parenting in reducing self-harm among children and adolescents.

Keywords: Hong Kong children; self-harm; stock market.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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