Individual-level determinants of suicide: Evidence from universal insurance claims and cause-of-death statistics

Pyoungsik Kim

Economics Letters, 2025, vol. 253, issue C

Abstract: This study analyzes the effects of socioeconomic variables on individual suicides using Proportional Hazards (PH) and Accelerated Failure Time (AFT) models. Utilizing linked data from South Korea’s universal health insurance claims and cause-of-death records, the analysis examines age, gender, disability, and insurance premiums (a proxy for income) as determinants of suicide-related mortality. Results show that suicide risk increases with age and disability but decreases with higher insurance premiums, while women have lower risk and longer survival times. Mental illness diagnoses show no significant impact. Within the PH model, only age emerges as a statistically significant predictor, with other variables not reaching conventional significance levels.

Keywords: Suicide; Suicide Determinants; Mental health; Survival Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525002393
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:ecolet:v:253:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525002393

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112402

Access Statistics for this article

Economics Letters is currently edited by Economics Letters Editorial Office

More articles in Economics Letters from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().