Poverty and Suicidal Ideation

The purpose of our study is to explain the socio-epidemiological relationship of poverty and suicide. We used two waves of data from the Seoul Welfare Panel Survey from 2009 to 2010. And A multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed targeting a total of 5,749 subjects of over 15 years old. The results of the study can be summarized as follows. First, the suicidal ideation and poverty status of individuals can change rapidly in a short period of time, such as in one year, but when looking at a whole group, the size of the poverty group and the rate of suicidal ideation generally remained constant. Second, we found that poverty was a significant factor of suicidal ideation from cross-sectional analysis of first wave. Third, the prevalence of suicidal ideation in the poverty group at the time of first wave was reduced at a rate 2.26 times more than that of the highest level of household income group at the time of second wave. Fourth, the suicidal ideation of individuals who belonged to the poverty group at the first wave but had escaped from poverty at the second wave ceased having suicidal ideation at a rate 2.05 times higher than members of the non‐poverty group. We found that suicidal ideation is concentrated in the poverty group and the transition of suicidal ideation is sensitive in this group.