Characteristics of Chinese rural young suicides by pesticides

Jie Zhang and Ziyao Li

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2013, vol. 59, issue 7, 655-662

Abstract: Background: The major suicide method in rural China today is ingestion of agricultural pesticides. Aim: This study is to investigate the characteristics of Chinese rural young suicides who died of pesticide ingestion. Methods: A sample of 392 suicides from rural China was studied using the psychological autopsy method, and data were analysed for demographic characteristics, the suicide method used, mental disorder and psychological characteristics. Results: Suicides by pesticide ingestion were enacted more because of impulsiveness and tended to demonstrate less mental illness than those suicides using other means in rural China. Conclusions: Accessibility, high toxicity and lethality of the pesticides were risk factors for the suicides of people without a mental disorder in rural China. The use of pesticides is a rational choice and the safe storage of these kinds of farming chemicals should be controlled to prevent certain suicides.

Keywords: Suicide; pesticides; psychological autopsy; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764012450995 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:59:y:2013:i:7:p:655-662

DOI: 10.1177/0020764012450995

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().