‘Highest Suicide Risk on Monday’... Pusan National University Identifies Suicide Risk Patterns by Day of Week and Holidays

Busan National University Professor Lee Hwanhee's Team Multinational Study Shows Increase Even on New Year's Day

Analysis of Over 1.7 Million Suicide Cases from 26 Countries (1971-2019)

Provides Important Research Findings for Suicide Prevention Policies in Korea, Japan, and Other Countries

A study by Pusan National University revealed that, including South Korea, the risk of suicide is highest worldwide on Mondays and the first day of the new year.

This is expected to help establish effective customized action plans for suicide prevention.

Pusan National University (President Choi Jae-won) announced on the 25th that a research team led by Professor Lee Hwan-hee of the Department of Biomedical Convergence Engineering at the College of Information and Biotechnology analyzed suicide risk patterns by day of the week and holidays using data from 26 countries, including Korea and Japan, spanning 49 years from 1971 to 2019 with over 1.7 million cases. The analysis showed that in all countries, suicide risk is highest on Mondays and also increases on the first day of the new year.

The countries analyzed include Canada, the United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Australia, South Africa, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, totaling 26 countries.

Suicide is a major global public health issue and is the fourth leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29. Understanding the temporal variation of suicide is essential to address this serious problem and to develop effective prevention strategies.

Although previous studies have addressed temporal variations in suicide risk, most were biased toward Western countries, limiting the applicability of their results to diverse cultural contexts. In particular, comprehensive studies targeting countries outside the Western sphere, including Asia, have been very scarce. To fill this gap, the Pusan National University research team conducted a study on suicide risk variations by day of the week and national holidays using data from multiple countries, including Korea and Japan.

For this purpose, the Pusan National University research team utilized data collected from 740 regions across 26 countries to investigate suicide risk patterns. The study was based on the Multi-City multi-Country (MCC) collaborative research network database and analyzed over 1.7 million daily suicide cases and average daily temperature data from 1971 to 2019.

The study found that suicide risk was highest on Mondays in all countries. This result can be most plausibly explained by the ‘Broken Promise Effect,’ which suggests that people experience increased despair at the start of a new cycle, leading to a sharp rise in suicide risk. In contrast, the impact of weekends varied by country.

Research Results by Professor Lee Hwanhee of Pusan National University.

The Broken Promise Effect refers to the phenomenon where people postpone suicide while expecting a new beginning at the end of a cycle, such as weekends or year-end, but experience greater despair and increased suicide risk when a new cycle begins, such as on Mondays or the first day of the new year.

Suicide risk also tended to increase significantly on the first day of the new year in all countries. In the case of Christmas, suicide risk patterns varied by country, and many countries showed a tendency for suicide risk to rise after holidays.

Additionally, the study found that males had a greater increase in suicide risk than females at specific times such as Mondays and the first day of the new year, suggesting the need for gender-specific suicide prevention strategies.

The finding that suicide risk is highest on Mondays and the first day of the new year highlights the need for tailored interventions targeting specific days and periods when developing suicide prevention strategies. This study provides important insights that suicide risk may vary according to temporal and cultural factors and is expected to help countries prepare effective and timely responses during periods of high suicide risk.

This research was jointly conducted by Professor Lee Hwan-hee of the Department of Biomedical Convergence Engineering at Pusan National University, doctoral student Kang Shin-woo of the Graduate School of Public Health at Seoul National University, and Professor Kim Yoon-hee of the Department of Global Environmental Health at the University of Tokyo, as part of an international research team organized under the Multi-City multi-Country (MCC) collaborative research network.

The research results were published in the October 23 issue of the world-renowned international journal, The BMJ (British Medical Journal).

Professor Lee Hwan-hee of Pusan National University, who led the research, said, “This study provides important data that deeply understand how suicide risk varies according to spatial and cultural factors by applying an integrated approach across various countries to suicide risk by day of the week and holidays. Based on this, we hope it will strengthen evidence-based suicide prevention theories and serve as an opportunity to develop more effective suicide prevention strategies.”

Professor Lee Hwanhee.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.