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Weekly lottery sales volume and suicide numbers: a time series analysis on national data from Taiwan

Abstract

Objective  

To investigate the association between weekly lottery sales and number of suicide deaths in Taiwan.

Methods  

All suicides aged 15+ years during 2004–2006 in Taiwan were included. Poisson autoregression time series models investigated
associations of weekly numbers with contemporaneous and recent sales from two national lotteries in operation. Adjustments
were made for seasonal fluctuation, temperature, monthly unemployment and autocorrelation.

Results  

In fully adjusted models, suicide deaths were negatively correlated with sales of tickets for a low-prize, low-cost lottery
system. However, they were correlated positively with recent sales for a higher-cost, larger-prize system. Both correlations
were stronger for male than female suicide numbers but differed in terms of age groups most strongly implicated.

Conclusions  

Associations between lottery sales and suicide numbers differed according to the nature of the lottery. A low-prize, low-publicity
system appeared to be more benign than a high-prize, high-publicity one.

  • Content Type Journal Article
  • Category Original Paper
  • Pages 1-5
  • DOI 10.1007/s00127-011-0410-8
  • Authors
    • Vincent Chin-Hung Chen, Department of Psychiatry, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
    • Robert Stewart, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, UK
    • Charles Tzu-Chi Lee, Department of Public Health, Kaohsiung Medical University, No. 100, Shihcyuan 1st Rd., Sanmin District, Kaohsiung City, 80708 Taiwan
    • Journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
    • Online ISSN 1433-9285
    • Print ISSN 0933-7954
Posted in: Journal Article Abstracts on 07/09/2011 | Link to this post on IFP |
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