Correlations between suicide rates and the prevalence of suicide risk factors among Korean adolescents

We examined whether annual changes in the prevalence of suicide risk factors are related to annual changes in suicide rates among male and female adolescents in South Korea. Data from the Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2005-2015) were used to obtain the annual prevalence of psychological and health-related risk factors among Korean adolescents. Mortality data from the Korean National Statistical Office (NSO) were used to obtain annual suicide rates among Korean adolescents aged 15-19 years. For male adolescents, there were significant positive correlations between suicide rate and the rate of depressive mood, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, drinking, and smoking and negative correlations between suicide rate and the rate of self-perceived healthiness, obesity, and being physically active. For female adolescents, suicide rates were positively correlated with rate of being sexually active and negatively correlated with rate of obesity. Overall, our study showed that annual rates of suicide are associated with annual prevalence of suicide risk factors in Korean adolescents, particularly in male adolescents.