Regional Differentials of Age-Specific Suicide Rate in South Korea 2005-2010

Jaein Lee, University of Maryland

Suicide is being one of the most prevalent causes of death in South Korea, representing significant 'abnormality' of society. As well as rapid increase in suicide rate compared to other countries, diverged gap in suicide rate among age groups and gender can be considered severe social disorder in current South Korea.To test determinants of diverged gap in suicide rate among age groups and gender, I utilized administrative areas as basic unit of analysis. With various regional statistics as indicators, I expect to find influential factors worsening risk of suicidal deaths with fixed effect model to find time-invariant determinants by area. I anticipate my findings of this study will contribute to better understanding of severe mental illness in South Korea. Also, clarifying age differentiated indicators of suicide can be effective proofs to build suicide prevention policies.