Social media and suicide in social movements: a case study in Hong Kong

Impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Coronavirus Disease 2019, and Social Unrest on Adult Psychiatric Admissions in Hong Kong: A Comparative Population-Based Study

ABSTRACT

In Hong Kong, two infectious disease outbreaks occurred in 2003 (SARS) and 2020 (COVID-19), and a large-scale social unrest happened in 2019. These were stressful societal events that influenced the mental well-being of the public. We aimed to explore the impact of these events on psychiatric admissions in Hong Kong. Socioeconomic and population-based psychiatric hospital admission data were retrieved from the government and Hospital Authority. Negative binomial time-series regression analysis was applied and we found overall significant reductions of psychiatric admissions during both the SARS and COVID-19 periods (-7.4% to -16.8%). Particularly, the admissions for unipolar disorders (-16.2% to -39.7%) and neuroses (-20.9% to -31.9%) were greatly reduced during the infection outbreaks. But an increase of admissions for schizophrenia (12.0%) was seen during the social unrest period. These findings support introducing early and targeted community mental health care strategies to the vulnerable people during the stressful societal events.

Helping intentions toward suicidal people among young adults: Patterns, transitions, and influencing factors

BACKGROUND

Public involvement is an essential element of effective suicide prevention. However, few studies have investigated laypeople's intentions and behaviors in supporting suicidal people, especially within Chinese contexts. This study was conducted among young adults in Hong Kong to identify categories of helping intentions toward suicidal people, and to understand whether, and why, youth transitioned over time between helping intention categories.

METHODS

A total of 807 Hong Kong young adults (18-35 years) participated in this two-wave study across 2018 (W1) and 2019 (W2). Latent class analyses were conducted to identify categories of helping intentions toward suicidal people. A latent transition analysis was applied to explore the stability of the categories over time, and the factors that influenced stability.

RESULTS

Three categories were identified in both waves: 1) dedicated helpers (W1: 28.38 %, W2: 28.50 %), 2) willing helpers (W1: 30.24 %, W2: 33.83 %), and 3) inconsistent helpers (W1: 41.39 %, W2: 37.67 %). 73.48 % of the young adults stayed in the same category across two years. Gender, and attitudes toward suicide victims were related to category membership and transitions between categories.

LIMITATIONS

Measurement of helping intentions may not be thorough. Further studies are required to examine whether the findings can be generalized to the other population.

CONCLUSIONS

Effective community engagement is essential for suicide prevention. Young adults in Hong Kong exhibited different helping intentions toward suicidal people, that were moderately stable over a two-year period. Understanding how and why young adults behave differently toward suicidal people is important when planning effective suicide prevention programs.