Association Between COVID-19 and Self-Harm: Nationwide Retrospective Ecological Spatiotemporal Study in Metropolitan France. Baillet, M., Wathelet, M., Lamer, A., Frévent, C., Fovet, T., D'Hondt, F., Notredame, C. E., Vaiva, G., & Génin, M. JMIR public health and surveillance, 10:e52759, JMIR Publications, aug, 2024.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has not been associated with increases in suicidal behavior at the national, regional, or county level. However, previous studies were not conducted on a finer scale or adjusted for ecological factors. Objective: Our objective was to assess the fine-scale spatiotemporal association between self-harm and COVID-19 hospitalizations, while considering ecological factors. Methods: Using the French national hospital discharge database, we extracted data on hospitalizations for self-harm of patients older than 10 years (from 2019 to 2021) or for COVID-19 (from 2020 to 2021) in metropolitan France. We first calculated monthly standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for COVID-19 between March 2020 and December 2021, using a Besag, York, and Mollié spatiotemporal model. Next, we entered the SIRs into an ecological regression in order to test the association between hospital admissions for self-harm and those for COVID-19. Lastly, we adjusted for ecological variables with time lags of 0 to 6 months. Results: Compared with a smoothed SIR of ≤1, smoothed SIRs from 1 to 3, from 3 to 4, and greater than 4 for COVID-19 hospital admissions were associated with a subsequent increase in hospital admissions for self-harm, with a time lag of 2 to 4 months, 4 months, and 6 months, respectively. Conclusions: A high SIR for hospital admissions for COVID-19 was a risk factor for hospital admission for self-harm some months after the epidemic peaks. This finding emphasizes the importance of monitoring and seeking to prevent suicide attempts outside the epidemic peak periods.
@article{Baillet2024,
abstract = {Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has not been associated with increases in suicidal behavior at the national, regional, or county level. However, previous studies were not conducted on a finer scale or adjusted for ecological factors. Objective: Our objective was to assess the fine-scale spatiotemporal association between self-harm and COVID-19 hospitalizations, while considering ecological factors. Methods: Using the French national hospital discharge database, we extracted data on hospitalizations for self-harm of patients older than 10 years (from 2019 to 2021) or for COVID-19 (from 2020 to 2021) in metropolitan France. We first calculated monthly standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for COVID-19 between March 2020 and December 2021, using a Besag, York, and Molli{\'{e}} spatiotemporal model. Next, we entered the SIRs into an ecological regression in order to test the association between hospital admissions for self-harm and those for COVID-19. Lastly, we adjusted for ecological variables with time lags of 0 to 6 months. Results: Compared with a smoothed SIR of ≤1, smoothed SIRs from 1 to 3, from 3 to 4, and greater than 4 for COVID-19 hospital admissions were associated with a subsequent increase in hospital admissions for self-harm, with a time lag of 2 to 4 months, 4 months, and 6 months, respectively. Conclusions: A high SIR for hospital admissions for COVID-19 was a risk factor for hospital admission for self-harm some months after the epidemic peaks. This finding emphasizes the importance of monitoring and seeking to prevent suicide attempts outside the epidemic peak periods.},
author = {Baillet, Ma{\"{e}}lle and Wathelet, Marielle and Lamer, Antoine and Fr{\'{e}}vent, Camille and Fovet, Thomas and D'Hondt, Fabien and Notredame, Charles Edouard and Vaiva, Guillaume and G{\'{e}}nin, Michael},
doi = {10.2196/52759},
file = {:C\:/Users/fabie/Downloads/jmir_public_health_covid_ts.pdf:pdf},
issn = {23692960},
journal = {JMIR public health and surveillance},
keywords = {COVID-19,data reuse,ecological regression,self-harm,spatiotemporal analysis},
language = {eng},
month = {aug},
pages = {e52759},
pmid = {39189893},
publisher = {JMIR Publications},
title = {{Association Between COVID-19 and Self-Harm: Nationwide Retrospective Ecological Spatiotemporal Study in Metropolitan France}},
volume = {10},
year = {2024}
}

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