近年來,由於自殺死亡率不斷的上升,自殺儼然已成為越來越不容忽視的健康議題。在過去許多的研究中,特定的社會與經濟因素,如失業、收入、婚姻狀況等被認為與自殺死亡率有關,然而國內在自殺議題的探討上,較集中於個人層次的行為成因與生活事件的探討,而缺乏對整體社會層次的研究,而目前也尚未有研究者納入社會不平等的概念。因此本研究之欲以社會層次的角度切入,探討社會經濟因素與自殺死亡率之間的關係。 本研究設計為回溯性多時間點橫斷性趨勢分析,利用台灣1980年至2003年21縣市之自殺死亡登記資料,分時期加以分析,以探討縣市之社經因素與自殺死亡率之關係。研究結果發現社經因素與自殺死亡率有關,且不同時期影響自殺死亡率之社經因素不同。
In Taiwan, suicide draws more attention to the public recently, because of the upward trend of suicide mortality. Previous studies have identified the relation between suicide mortality and specific macro socio-economic factors, such as unemployment and income level. However, compared to the individual level studies, the amount of ecological level studies of suicide in Taiwan was very limited. Furthermore, the relation between social inequality and suicide mortality has not yet been explored in Taiwan. The aim of this study is to examine socio-economic impact on the suicide mortality from the ecological aspect. This study used the administrative data, covering the period from 1980 to 2003 for 21 cities/counties of Taiwan. The relation between selected socio-economic factors and suicide mortality at different time-points (1980-84, 1990-94 and 2000-03) was examined by regression analysis. The findings were consistent with previous studies that socio-economic factors relate to suicide mortality, and further suggested that different factors account for suicide mortality in different periods.