Anxiety Mood.  2020 Oct;16(2):91-97. 10.24986/anxmod.2020.16.2.005.

The Relationship Between the Severity of Drinking and Suicidal Ideation in The General Korean Population-Analysis by Gender and Age Groups

• Lee SM
• Shin YC
• Shin DW
• Oh KS
• Jeon SW
• Kim EJ
• Cho SJ

• KMID: 2508480
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.24986/anxmod.2020.16.2.005

Abstract

Objective
: The suicide mortality rate among Koreans was ranked first among the OECD countries in 2018. Alcohol consumption is a significant risk factor for suicidal behavior. This study examined the rela-tionship between the severity of subjects’ drinking habits and the suicidal ideation among Koreans accord-ing to gender and age.
Methods
: The data of 113,602 people who visited the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital Health Screening Cen-ter from January 2013 to December 2014 were used. The severity of subjects’ harmful drinking habits was assessed using the Korean version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-K). The relationship between the severity of harmful drinking and suicidal ideation was compared using logistic regression analyses. We also examined the tendency through p for trend to identify a trend.
Results
: Of the 113,602 study subjects, 6,586 (5.8%) responded that they had thought of committing sui-cide. After controlling for gender, marriage, education, body mass index (BMI), depression and anxiety, the results showed that the higher the level of harmful drinking, the higher the suicidal ideation.
Conclusion
: This study found that, even after controlling depression and anxiety, the severity of drink-ing could be a significant risk factor for suicidal ideation.

Keyword

Severity of drinking; AUDIT-K; Suicidal ideation