Werther Effect following the suicide of three Korean celebrities (2017 – 2018): application of the poisson regression model

AbstractBackground The suicide rate of Korea in 2013–2016 and 2018–2019 was the highest among OECD countries. In Korea, suicide is ranked fifth among the causes of death, first in the cause of death among individuals in their 10s, 20s and 30s, and second among those in their 40s and 50s. To prevent the Werther effect (increase in copycat suicides following suicides of socially influential celebrities) Suicide Reporting Guidelines were established in 2004. This study aims to examine the Werther effect following the establishment of the Suicide Reporting Guidelines 3.0 and the suicide of idol singers. Methods The Poisson regression was performed using cause-of-death statistics microdata provided by Statistics Korea from 2016 to 2019. The experimental period was 10 weeks after each celebrity suicide, with the other period as the control period. Results After two idol singers’ suicides, the suicide rate increased significantly. However, after politician N's suicide, the risk of copycat suicide increased significantly only in week 7. Women aged < 40 years experienced a greater Werther effect than those in other population groups. Conclusions Most of the suicide-related harmful information is gathered from social networking sites (SNS), and the SNS utilization rate of those under 40 was above 70%. This suggests that the Suicide Reporting Guidelines should be strictly observed in all media to prevent the Werther effect.