Analysis of the high-risk age group of suicide in South Korea-Comparison of Japan and South Korea.

摘要

To the Editor Specific suicide prevention measures have recently been implemented in several countries. In the United States of America (USA), psychiatric disorders are understood through the cooperation of administrative bodies, the general public, and medical personnel. Suicide rates in the USA have decreased in recent years. South Korea is one country that has extensively modernized, but the number of suicides in the country in 2000 has increased approximately 2.04 times from its level in 1990, according to a special report on vital statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. The number of suicides in Japan increased in 1998 and has remained high since then. Therefore, we aim to clarify suicide trends by age for Japan and South Korea. In this report, we compared the suicide rates by age in Japan and South Korea during 2001-2002 as were reported by the 'Journal of Health and Welfare Statistics' of the Health and Welfare Statistics Association.