Chia-Yueh Hsu

• MD, MSc
• Professor (Assistant) at Taipei Medical University

Aims: Decreases in suicide rates during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic were found in several countries, including Taiwan and South Korea. We investigated the pattern of the reduction in suicide by sex, age, method, and outbreak period in the two countries. Methods: Suicide data for Taiwan (2015-2021) and South Korea (2017-2021)...

Background: Travel distance to hospital emergency departments (EDs) may be a more influential factor in the spatial variation in hospital-presenting self-harm than for suicide deaths. Aims: We investigated the associations of travel distance to the nearest ED with self-harm hospital presentations and suicides in a large city in Taiwan. Method: Data...

Aim No previous studies investigated the association between psychiatrist density and suicide, accounting for individual‐ and area‐level characteristics. Methods All suicide cases in 2007–2017 were identified from the national cause‐of‐death data files, with each suicide case matched to ten controls by age and sex and each suicide case/control ass...

Background: Data from some countries showed a worrisome increase in domestic violence but a paradoxical decrease in divorce during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the impact of the pandemic on domestic violence and divorce in Taiwan in 2020–2021. Method: Data for reported domestic violence and divorce by month and county/...

Background: Individuals who self-harm have increased suicide rates. Brief interventions are associated with reduced repeated suicide attempts. However, very few previous studies investigated the acceptability of brief interventions before implementing new trials. Aims: We aimed to explore the perceptions of individuals who self-harm toward a bri...

Background: Older people have the highest suicide rate across age groups in most countries. The prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors also increases with age. We investigated the association between body mass index (BMI), cardiometabolic risk factors, and suicide in a large cohort of older people in Taiwan. Methods: We conducted a cohort st...

Objective We investigated recent trends in youth suicide and their associations with societal and psychological factors in Taiwan. Methods Suicide data (1971-2019) for 10-24-year-olds were extracted from Taiwan’s national cause-of-death data files. We investigated changes in trends in youth suicide rates, societal factors (GDP per capita, GINI inde...

Aims: We aimed to investigate the trajectories of absolute and relative risks of cause-specific mortality among patients discharged from inpatient psychiatric services. Methods: We conducted a national matched cohort study (2002-2013) using data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance database linked to national cause-of-death data files. Pati...

We investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on call volumes and call characteristics using data from a national crisis helpline. Data were extracted for 215,066 calls to Taiwan’s national suicide prevention hotline (January 2018–May 2020). We used negative binomial regression to investigate changes in the weekly number of calls during the e...

Background: Few studies have investigated whether means accessibility is related to the spatial distribution of suicide. Aims: To examine the hypothesis that indicators of the accessibility to specific suicide methods were associated with method-specific suicide rates in Taipei City, Taiwan. Method: Smoothed standardized mortality ratios for method...

Background Suicides by carbon monoxide poisoning from burning charcoal increased markedly and contributed to a rise in overall suicides in Taiwan in the early 2000s. A previous study indicated short-term effectiveness on reducing suicides of a charcoal restriction programme, which involved voluntary actions from large chain retail stores to move ch...

Objectives Suicide is a leading cause of death in the working-age population. We investigated suicide mortality among diagnostic medical radiation workers in relation to their demographic and occupational factors in South Korea. Methods The study population consisted of all diagnostic medical radiation workers enrolled in the National Dosimetry Re...

Background Suicide rates are higher in men than in women in most countries, although the gender ratios vary markedly worldwide. We investigated long-term trends in suicide rates and the male-to-female ratios in relation to age, method and economic factors in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial (1905–1940) and postwar (1959–2012) periods. Methods S...

Background While the association between residential socioeconomic environments and the use of globally common substances such as alcohol and tobacco has been well documented in Western countries, it remains little known about regionally important substances, such as areca nut in Asia. Objective: This study was aimed to develop residential environm...

Spatial patterning and correlates of self-harm in Manchester, England – CORRIGENDUM - Volume 29 - Chien-Yu Lin, Harriet Bickley, Caroline Clements, Roger T. Webb, David Gunnell, Chia-Yueh Hsu, Shu-Sen Chang, Nav Kapur

Aims To investigate the spatial distribution of self-harm incidence rates, their socioeconomic correlates and sex/age differences using data on self-harm presentations to emergency departments from The Manchester Self-Harm Project (2003–2013). Methods Smoothed standardised incidence ratios for index self-harm episodes ( n = 14 771) and their assoc...

Background: The use of barbecue charcoal gas for suicide led to more than 50,000 deaths in Asia since the rise of its use from 1998. Little is known whether the profile of charcoal-burning suicides changed over time. Methods: Hong Kong's suicide data (2002-2013) were extracted from the Coroner's files. The detailed characteristics were compared...

More than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas. Understanding the spatial distribution of suicide in these settings may inform prevention. Previous analyses of the spatial distribution of suicide in cities have largely been conducted in Western nations. We investigated the spatial pattern of suicide and factors associated with it...

Aims There has recently been an increased interest in mental health indicators for the monitoring of population wellbeing, which is among the targets of Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations. Levels of subjective wellbeing and suicide rates have been proposed as indicators of population mental health, but prior research is lim...

We examined the relationships between individuals’ life satisfaction and individual-, household- and neighbourhood-level characteristics and evidence for cross-level interactions. We used data on individuals’ life satisfaction and a range of individual- and household-level characteristics from the Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics (2011) wit...

Past urban research on Western nations tends to show high suicide rates in inner city and socioeconomically deprived areas. However, little is known about geographic variations in suicide in non-Western cities. We used Bayesian hierarchical models to estimate smoothed standardised mortality ratios (2005-2010) for suicide in people aged 10 years or...

Chronotye is associated with age, sex, personality, and parental monitoring during childhood. The evening type is associated with poor school performance, sleep problems, anxious/depressive symptoms, tobacco smoking, caffeine consumption, alcohol drinking, and suicidality in adolescents. The present study tested the relationships between chronotype...