WHO-media guidelines

Media reporting of suicidal behavior can be beneficial as well as harmful. Dramatic and sensational descriptions may lead to increased suicidal behavior in the population while objective reporting with focus on where to seek help (hopeful stories) can be preventive. WHO has in collaboration with international experts developed a set of media guide lines with recommendations on how to present suicidal events in online as well as written media.

DRISP: Britt Morthorst


Partners:

  • National Health Authorities in Denmark

Joinpoint regression analysis of suicides in Denmark during 1980-2015


Is the suicide rate in Denmark increasing or decreasing? Effective suicide prevention requires vigilant monitoring of suicide trends. The aim of this study was to assess the change in the Danish suicide rate over time using joinpoint regression analysis. The suicide rate fell sharply between 1980 and 1999 in Denmark, but since then the decrease has been modest, especially since 2007. Further reduction in the suicide rate requires new and effective measures. The study is published in Danish Medical Bulletin

DRISP: Susanne Dyvesether, Annette Erlangsen & Merete Nordentoft


Partners:

  • Julie L Forman, Section of Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Workplace bullying and suicidal behaviour

Workplace bullying can be considered a stressful event, but there is little knowledge about its association with suicidal behavior. The aim of this research project was to investigate whether people who had experienced workplace bullying had a higher risk of suicidal behavior than people who had not been exposed to it.

In several large Danish surveys, more than 98,000 employees had been asked about experiences of workplace bullying. These data were linked to registry data, so that researchers could examine how many of the respondents were recorded with suicidal behavior over the subsequent 10 years from 2004-2014. The findings showed that over 10% of the people who had reported experienced workplace bullying. People who had been exposed to workplace bullying had a 1.6 times higher risk of suicidal behavior when compared to those who had not experienced bullying. The study was one of the few, which have documented this association in data where it could be determined that the bullying had been reported prior to the observed suicidal behavior.

The project has received funding from the Psychiatric Research Foundation, Region of Southern Denmark.

You can find the study here: https://www.sjweh.fi/article/4034

DRISP: Annette Erlangsen

Partners:

  • Paul Maurice Conway, Institut for Psykologi, Københavns Universitet
  • Thomas Clausen, Det Nationale Forskningscenter for Arbejdsmiljø, København
  • Annie Høgh, Institut for Psykologi, Københavns Universitet
  • Elsebeth Stenager, Department of Regional Health Research, University of Southern

Suicidal behaviour after among victims of physical or sexual abuse

Abuse of children and youth is an important problem to emphasize and prevent. This project conducts a large, representative, study of victims of sexual and physical abuse.
The project has received support from the Danish Health Care Foundation.

DRISP: Annette Erlangsen & Merete Nordentoft

Partners

  • Holly Wilcox, Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA
  • Prof Elizabeth J. Letourneau, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • Kairi Kolves, Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, WHO Collaborating Centre in for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention at Griffith University