Patterns of Suicide in the Context of COVID-19: Evidence From Three Australian States.

Aims: We aimed to determine whether there has been a change in the number of suicides occurring in three Australian states overall, and in age and sex subgroups, since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and to see if certain risk factors for suicide have become more prominent as likely underlying contributing factors for suicide. Method: Using real-time data from three state-based suicide registers, we ran multiple unadjusted and adjusted interrupted time series analyses to see if trends in monthly suicide counts changed after the pandemic began and whether there had been an increase in suicides where relationship breakdown, financial stressors, unemployment and homelessness were recorded. Results: Compared with the period before COVID-19, during the COVID-19 period there was no change in the number of suicides overall, or in any stratum-specific estimates except one. The exception was an increase in the number of young males who died by suicide in the COVID-19 period (adjusted RR 1.89 [95% CI 1.11-3.23]). The unadjusted analysis showed significant differences in suicide in the context of unemployment and relationship breakdown during the COVID-19 compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. Analysis showed an increase in the number of suicides occurring in the context of unemployment in the COVID-19 period (unadjusted RR 1.53 [95% CI 1.18-1.96]). In contrast, there was a decrease in the number of suicides occurring in the context of relationship breakdown in the COVID-19 period (unadjusted RR 0.82 [95% CI 0.67-0.99]). However, no significant changes were identified when the models were adjusted for possible over-dispersion, seasonality and non-linear trend. Conclusion: Although our analysis found no evidence of an overall increase in suicides after the pandemic began, the picture is complex. The identified increase in suicide in young men indicates that the impact of the pandemic is likely unevenly distributed across populations. The increase in suicides in the context of unemployment reinforces the vital need for mitigation measures during COVID-19, and for ongoing monitoring of suicide as the pandemic continues.

Changes in Job Control and Perceptions of General Health: A Longitudinal Analysis of Australian Workers, 2005 to 2017.

OBJECTIVE: This longitudinal study of Australian workers explores a possible causal relationship between job control and general health. METHODS: Our sample included 105,017 observations (18,574 persons) over 13 annual waves from working age participants with information on job control, general health, and other sociodemographic and health factors. Three complementary longitudinal modeling approaches were used to explore the causal relationship. RESULTS: There was a strong stepwise, mostly exposure to outcome, relationship between increasing job control and general health. Cumulative exposure to low job control resulted in increasingly worse general health. Taken together, these findings provide good evidence of a causal relationship between low job control and general health. CONCLUSION: This analysis with improved causal inference over previous research showed that change in job control is strongly associated with change in general health.