Meta-Analysis

. 2025 Sep 30:13:1668476.

doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1668476. eCollection 2025.

Suicide risk on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and Valentine's Day: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Ta-Chuan Yeh^#^{1

2

3}, Tien-Wei Hsu^#^{4

5

6}, Yu-Chen Kao^{7

8}, Trevor Thompson⁹, Brendon Stubbs¹⁰, Andre F Carvalho¹¹, Fu-Chi Yang¹², Ping-Tao Tseng^{13

14

15

16}, Chih-Wei Hsu¹⁷, Chia-Ling Yu¹⁸, Yu-Kang Tu^#^{19

20}, Chih-Sung Liang^#^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Centre, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Zuoying Armed Forces General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, E-DA Dachang Hospital, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁵ School of Medicine, College of Medicine, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁶ Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry, National Defense Medical Centre, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Beitou Branch, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁹ Centre for Chronic Illness and Ageing, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.
¹⁰ Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
¹¹ IMPACT (Innovation in Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Treatment) Strategic Research Centre, School of Medicine, Barwon Health, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
¹² Department of Neurology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Centre, Taipei, Taiwan.
¹³ Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
¹⁴ Department of Psychology, College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan.
¹⁵ Prospect Clinic for Otorhinolaryngology & Neurology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
¹⁶ Institute of Precision Medicine, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
¹⁷ Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
¹⁸ Department of Pharmacy, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
¹⁹ Institute of Health Data Analytics & Statistics, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
²⁰ Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 41098756
PMCID: PMC12518309
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1668476

Meta-Analysis

Suicide risk on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and Valentine's Day: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Ta-Chuan Yeh et al. Front Public Health. 2025.

. 2025 Sep 30:13:1668476.

doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1668476. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Centre, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Zuoying Armed Forces General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, E-DA Dachang Hospital, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁵ School of Medicine, College of Medicine, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁶ Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry, National Defense Medical Centre, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Beitou Branch, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁹ Centre for Chronic Illness and Ageing, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.
¹⁰ Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
¹¹ IMPACT (Innovation in Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Treatment) Strategic Research Centre, School of Medicine, Barwon Health, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
¹² Department of Neurology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Centre, Taipei, Taiwan.
¹³ Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
¹⁴ Department of Psychology, College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan.
¹⁵ Prospect Clinic for Otorhinolaryngology & Neurology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
¹⁶ Institute of Precision Medicine, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
¹⁷ Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
¹⁸ Department of Pharmacy, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
¹⁹ Institute of Health Data Analytics & Statistics, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
²⁰ Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 41098756
PMCID: PMC12518309
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1668476

Abstract

Objective: Holidays are times of celebration of family and loved ones which can be difficult for some people. This study assessed the risk of suicide on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and Valentine's Day.

Methods: We searched four major electronic databases. The primary outcome was suicide deaths, and the secondary outcome was self-harm and suicide-related behaviors (SHSB). For each holiday, we calculated the risk ratio (RR) compared to regular days and the proportion of annual suicides.

Results: We included 28 studies (n = 2,186,094). The proportion of annual suicides was 0.23% [95% confidence interval, 0.17%, 0.28%; number of studies (k) = 11] on Christmas Eve, 0.24% (0.19%, 0.29%; k = 17) on Christmas Day, 0.39% (0.31%, 048%; k = 16) on New Year's Days, and 0.27% (0.24%, 0.30%; k = 5) on Valentine's Day. Compared to regular days, suicide risk was 17% lower (RR = 0.83; 0.72, 0.96) on Christmas Day and 33% higher on New Year's Day (RR = 1.33; 1.06, 1.65) with no significant difference for Christmas Eve or Valentine's Day. This pattern of lower suicide risk on Christmas and higher risk on New Year's Day was consistent across countries. Regarding SHSB, the proportions were 0.19% on Christmas Eve, 0.21% on Christmas Day, 0.29% on New Year's Day, and 0.23% on Valentine's Day, corresponding to a lower risk on Christmas Eve (RR = 0.74; 0.57, 0.96; k = 5) and a higher risk on New Year's Day (RR = 1.17; 1.03, 1.34; k = 6), but no significant difference on Christmas Day or Valentine's Day.

Conclusion: Our study suggests that only New Year's Day appears to be a temporal hotspot for suicide across most countries.

Systematic review registration: Open Science Framework (osf.io/7zx3d).

Keywords: Christmas; New Year's Day; Valentine's Day; self-harm and suicide related behavior; suicide.

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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**
Proportion of annual suicides occurring on **(A)** Christmas Eve, **(B)** Christmas Day, and **(C)** New Year's Day.

**Figure 2**
Risk ratio of suicides on **(A)** Christmas Eve, **(B)** Christmas Day, and **(C)** New Year's Day compared with that of regular day.

**Figure 3**
Temporal trend of suicide from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day by country.

**Figure 4**
Proportion of annual suicides occurring on Christmas Eve by country.

**Figure 5**
Proportion of annual suicides occurring on New Year's Day by country.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Suicide risk on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and Valentine's Day: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Affiliations

Suicide risk on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and Valentine's Day: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical