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. 2021 Mar 5:12:653390.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.653390. eCollection 2021.

Meteorological Variables and Suicidal Behavior: Air Pollution and Apparent Temperature Are Associated With High-Lethality Suicide Attempts and Male Gender

Andrea Aguglia  1   2 , Gabriele Giacomini  1   2 , Elisa Montagna  1   2 , Andrea Amerio  1   2   3 , Andrea Escelsior  1   2 , Marco Capello  4 , Laura Cutroneo  4 , Gabriele Ferretti  4 , Davide Scafidi  4 , Alessandra Costanza  5   6 , Gianluca Serafini  1   2 , Mario Amore  1   2
Affiliations

Meteorological Variables and Suicidal Behavior: Air Pollution and Apparent Temperature Are Associated With High-Lethality Suicide Attempts and Male Gender

Andrea Aguglia et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

This study analyzed the impact of meteorological variables and high-lethality suicide attempts (HLSA) to assess a potential time shift of HLSA affected by climate evolution to predict the suicide attempt cases over different periods of the year. After attempting suicide, 225 subjects were admitted to the emergency ward of the IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino and later to the psychiatric unit from March 2016 to July 2018. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics as well as the meteorological variables were collected. The Mann-Kendall test as well as redundancy and cross-correlation analyses were performed to analyze the trends, statistically correlations, and correspondence of the trends, respectively between suicidal behaviors and climatic factors. Sixty-seven (29.8%) committed a HLSA. Our findings indicate a significant association between HLSA and male gender and apparent temperature with a strong correlation of 75% with a phase shift of -1 month. Solar radiation and air pollution (PM2.5) have a positive correlation of 65 and 32%, respectively, with a zero-time lag. Limitations include that the data are limited to a single hospital; psychological factors, or other clinical variables that could be ruled out as a trigger have not been considered. Meteorological variables may not mirror the temperature that the patient is exposed to due to the air conditioning systems. Exploring those environmental factors associated with HLSA in a more detailed manner could lead to early intervention and prevention strategies for such distressing admissions.

Keywords: air pollution; apparent temperature; environmental parameters; hospitalization; suicidal behavior; suicide; suicide attempt.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Monthly distribution of (A) solar radiation (pale yellow bars) and temperature (red line); (B) precipitation (gray bars) and wind speed (blue line); (C) atmospheric pressure (green bars) and relative humidity (black line); (D) particulate matter concentrations (PM10-dark green line and PM2.5-orange line); (E) CO (gray line) and NO2 (violet line) concentrations; (F) benzene concentrations (dark blue line).
Figure 2
Figure 2
RDA analysis combining suicide lethality and gender (response variables) with environmental parameters. The sum of all canonical eigenvalues is 0.42.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cross-correlation results: HLSA vs. apparent temperature (red); HLSA vs. solar radiation (orange); HLSA vs. PM2.5 (black).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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