Swedish nationwide time series analysis of influenza and suicide deaths from 1910 to 1978 (original) (raw)

ObjectivesThere is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic will be associated with an increase in suicides, but evidence supporting a link between pandemics and suicide is limited. Using data from the three influenza pandemics of the 20th century, we aimed to investigate whether an association exists between influenza deaths and suicide deaths.DesignTime series analysis.SettingSweden.ParticipantsDeaths from influenza and suicides extracted from the Statistical Yearbook of Sweden for 1910–1978, covering three pandemics (the Spanish influenza, the Asian influenza and the Hong Kong influenza).Main outcome measuresAnnual suicide rates in Sweden among the whole population, men and women. Non-linear autoregressive distributed lag models was implemented to explore if there is a short-term and/or long-term relationship of increases and decreases in influenza death rates with suicide rates during 1910–1978.ResultsBetween 1910 and 1978, there was no evidence of either short-term or long-term signi...