scholarly journals Determining What Changed Japanese Suicide Mortality in 2020 Using Governmental Database

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 5199
Author(s):  
Ryusuke Matsumoto ◽  
Eishi Motomura ◽  
Kouji Fukuyama ◽  
Takashi Shiroyama ◽  
Motohiro Okada

The pandemic of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused both COVID-19-related health hazards and the deterioration of socioeconomic and sociopsychological status due to governmental restrictions. There were concerns that suicide mortality would increase during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, a recent study reported that suicide mortality did not increase in 21 countries during the early pandemic period. In Japan, suicide mortality was reduced from 2009 to 2019, but both the annual number of suicide victims and the national suicide mortality rates in 2020 increased compared to that in 2019. To clarify the discrepancy of suicide mortality between the first and second half of 2020 in Japan, the present study determines annual and monthly suicide mortality disaggregated by prefectures, gender, age, means, motive, and household factors during the COVID-19 pandemic and pre-pandemic periods using a linear mixed-effects model. Furthermore, the relationship between suicide mortality and COVID-19 data (the infection rate, mortality, and duration of the pandemic) was analysed using hierarchal linear regression with a robust standard error. The average of monthly suicide mortality of both males and females in all 47 prefectures decreased during the first stay-home order (April–May) (females: from 10.1–10.2 to 7.8–7.9; males: from 24.0–24.9 to 21.6 per 100,000 people), but increased after the end of the first stay-home order (July–December) (females: from 7.5–9.5 to 10.3–14.5; males: from 19.9–23.0 to 21.1–26.7 per 100,000 people). Increasing COVID-19-infected patients and victims indicated a tendency of suppression, but the prolongation of the pandemic indicated a tendency of increasing female suicide mortality without affecting that of males. Contrary to the national pattern, in metropolitan regions, decreasing suicide mortality during the first stay-home order was not observed. Decreasing suicide mortality during the first stay-home order was not observed in populations younger than 30 years old, whereas increasing suicide mortality of populations younger than 30 years old after the end of the first stay-home order was predominant. A decrease in suicide mortality of one-person household residents during the first stay-home order was not observed. The hanging suicide mortality of males and females was decreased and increased during and after the end of the first stay-home orders, respectively; however, there was no decrease in metropolitan regions. These results suggest that the suicide mortality in 2020 of females, younger populations, urban residents, and one-person household residents increased compared to those of males, the elderly, rural residents, and multiple-person household residents. Therefore, the unexpected drastic fluctuations of suicide mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan were probably composed of complicated reasons among various identified factors in this study, and other unknown factors.

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692199680
Author(s):  
Michael Gradoville ◽  
Mark Waltermire ◽  
Avizia Long

Aims and objectives: While previous research has shown that phonetic variation in language contact situations is affected by whether a word has a cognate in the contact language, this paper aims to show that such an effect is not monotonic. According to the usage-based model, items in memory are organized according to similarity, thus we anticipated that formally more similar cognates would show a stronger cognate effect. Methodology: This variationist sociophonetic study investigates the relationship between cognate similarity and phonetic realization. We examined this relationship in the bilingual community of Rivera, Uruguay, in which both Portuguese and Spanish are spoken with regularity. Specifically, we focused on intervocalic /d/, which in monolingual Spanish is realized as an approximant [ð̞] or phonetic zero, but in monolingual Brazilian Portuguese is produced as a stop [d] or, in most varieties, an affricate [ʤ] before [i]. Data and analysis: We analyzed a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews of the Spanish spoken in Rivera. Acoustic measurements were taken from approximately 60 tokens each from 40 different speakers. Using a linear mixed-effects model, we examined the relationship between several predictors and the degree of constriction of intervocalic /d/. Findings/conclusions: While there is an overall frequency effect whereby more frequent words exhibit less constriction of intervocalic /d/, as both frequency and cognate similarity increase, less constriction of intervocalic /d/ obtains. Therefore, frequent cognates in Portuguese that have very similar forms affect the production of intervocalic /d/ more so than other cognates. Originality: No previous study has demonstrated that the cognate effect on phonetic variation in a situation of language contact is regulated by form similarity between cognate pairs. Significance/implications: The data support the usage-based model in that similar cognates have more lexical connections and can therefore show greater influence on phonetic realization than can cognates that share less phonetic material.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reto Sterchi ◽  
Pascal Haegeli ◽  
Patrick Mair

Abstract. While guides in mechanized skiing operations use a well-established terrain selection process to limit their exposure to avalanche hazard and keep the residual risk at an acceptable level, the relationship between the open/closed status of runs and environmental factors is complex and has so far only received limited attention from research. Using a large data set of over 25 000 operational run list codes from a mechanized skiing operation, we applied a general linear mixed effects model to explore the relationship between acceptable skiing terrain (i.e., status open) and avalanche hazard conditions. Our results show that the magnitude of the effect of avalanche hazard on run list codes depends on the type of terrain that is being assessed by the guiding team. Ski runs in severe alpine terrain with steep lines through large avalanche slopes are much more susceptible to increases in avalanche hazard than less severe terrain. However, our results also highlight the strong effects of recent skiing on the run coding and thus the importance of prior first-hand experience. Expressing these relationships numerically provides an important step towards the development of meaningful decision aids, which can assist commercial operations to manage their avalanche risk more effectively and efficiently.


Author(s):  
Fadwa Abdallah halabiyah, Marwan Fakhry Saeed Fadwa Abdallah halabiyah, Marwan Fakhry Saeed

  The aim of this study was to determine the level of irrational thoughts and emotional stability among the elderly in Governorate of Jericho, as well as the relationship between them based on gender, economic level, accommodation type, and educational level. The descriptive-analytical approach, the irrational thoughts scale, and the emotional stability scale were employed to achieve these objectives. The sample included (300) elderly people, males and females, who were chosen randomly from the elderly attending the social development centers and Grandparents’ House in Jericho. Cronbach Alpha, Pearson Correlation coefficient, t- test, one-way ANOVA were calculated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results of this study revealed that the elderly in Jericho Governorate have a moderate degree of both irrational thoughts and of emotional stability. The results also demonstrated an inverse statistically significant relationship between irrational thoughts and emotional stability among the elderly. The results also showed no differences in the level of irrational thoughts among the elderly in the Jericho governorate due to the variables of gender or economic level. It was found that there were differences in the level of irrational thoughts due to accommodation type and educational level. The results showed that there were no differences in the level of emotional stability among the elderly based on gender, economic level, or accommodation type, while there are statistically significant differences in the level of emotional stability attributed to the educational level.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 317-317
Author(s):  
Masahiro Wakatsuki ◽  
Carlos Piñeiro ◽  
Yuzo Koketsu

Abstract Sow lifetime performance can be predicted by sow performance at an early age; however, few studies have examined the relationship between farrowing age (FA) after parity 1 and sow lifetime performance. Therefore, our objective was to examine the association between FA in different parities and sow lifetime performance. Data were extracted from 198,043 sows entered into 155 Spanish herds between 2011 - 2013 and removed between 2011 - 2016. The 1st to 99th percentiles of FA records were analyzed, with FA defined as the number of days from birth to the farrowing date in each parity. A two-level linear mixed-effects model was applied to examine the relationship between FA and lifetime performance of sows (SAS University Edition). Means of FA + SD (range) in parities 1 and 3 were 368.4 + 34.8 (238 - 460) days and 663.5 + 41.4 (501 - 773) days, respectively. The ranges of FA in parity 1 and 3 were 238 - 460 days and 501 - 773 days, respectively. Lifetime performance decreased with higher FA in both parities. For example, in parity 1, as FA increased from 290 to 410 days, lifetime piglets born alive (PBA) decreased by 4.4 piglets, annualized lifetime PBA decreased by 3.5 piglets and nonproductive days increased by 16.8 days. Similarly, in parity 3, as FA increased from 590 to 710 days, lifetime PBA decreased by 5.3 piglets, annualized lifetime PBA decreased by 3.0 piglets and nonproductive days increased by 39.5 days. Also, sows with a lower FA in parity 1 had fewer PBA in that parity than sow with a higher FA (P < 0.05). However, they also had fewer nonproductive days and a shorter weaning-to-first-mating interval and more annualized lifetime PBA. Therefore, these data indicate that FA can be used to predict lifetime performance of the sows.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Tsiptsios ◽  
Anestis Matziridis ◽  
Andreas Ouranidis ◽  
Andreas S Triantafyllis ◽  
Aikaterini Terzoudi ◽  
...  

Background: We aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep characteristics with hypertension using self-reported questionnaires. Material & methods: A total of 957 adults were classified into three groups (short [<6 h], normal [6–8 h] and long [>8 h] sleepers). Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg or use of antihypertensive medication at the time of interview. Results: Overall prevalence of hypertension was 34.3%. Association between short sleep duration and hypertension that was age-specific, present only among younger and middle aged individuals and sparing the elderly, but not gender-specific, as no discrepancies existed between males and females in all age groups, was evident. Conclusion: This study promotes early pharmacological or cognitive behavioral interventions on sleep disturbances in order to reduce hypertension burden.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth N. Riley ◽  
Kate Cordell ◽  
Stephen Shimshock ◽  
John Lyons ◽  
Olga A Vsevolozhskaya

Transportation to/from care is a significant barrier to healthcare access and utilization. The novel coronavirus pandemic prompted a widespread expansion of telehealth service delivery throughout much of 2020. We used propensity score matching to generate two comparison groups of children served in a large public mental and behavioral health system between (1) April-December 2019 (pre-pandemic; n=2,794), and (2) between April-December 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic, n=2,794), followed by longitudinal linear mixed-effects modelling to explore the relationship between caregiver transportation needs and child-level outcomes. Our analyses indicated a statistically significant association between the resolution of caregiver's transportation needs and children's clinical improvement in the 2019 (pre-pandemic) sample; there was no such association found in the 2020 (pandemic) sample. Our findings suggest that the use of telehealth may mitigate the effect of caregiver transportation needs on child-level clinical outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 316-317
Author(s):  
Moe Hiramatsu ◽  
Carlos Piñeiro ◽  
Yuzo Koketsu

Abstract It is critical for producers to maximize sows’ reproductive potential in commercial herds in order to improve economic efficiency. While it is generally known that large herds have better reproductive performance than small herds, few studies have assessed how much the lifetime reproductive performance of sows is associated with herd size. Therefore, our objective was to examine the relationship between six herd size groups and sow lifetime performance. Data were extracted from 166,335 sows which were entered into 155 Spanish breeding herds from 2011 - 2013 and removed by 2017. Herds were categorized into six groups based on the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles of average sow inventory in 2016: 87 - 195, 196 - 342, 343 - 596, 597 - 1,025, 1,026 - 2,152 and 2,153 - 3,669 sows. A two-level linear mixed-effects model was applied to examine the relationship between herd size and reproductive performance of sows (SAS University Edition). No differences were found between herd size groups and either lifetime total born or lifetime piglets born alive. However, the largest herd group had 23.0 fewer lifetime nonproductive days (NPD), and 2.1 more annualized lifetime piglets weaned than the mid-size (343 - 596 sows) herds (P &lt; 0.05). Also, parity at removal was 0.3 lower in the largest herds than the mid-size herds (P &lt; 0.05). Furthermore, the largest herds also had 0.8 - 1.0 days shorter weaning-to-first-mating interval (WMI), 2.8 - 4.9% higher farrowing rates and 10.2 - 11.9 days shorter repeat intervals than the mid-size herds (P &lt; 0.05). In conclusion, the shorter WMI, fewer NPD and improved reproductive productivity in the largest herds suggest that these herds have better lactational management and quicker culling decision making than mid-size herds.


Author(s):  
Marianna Rinaldi ◽  
Giuseppe Graffi ◽  
Salvatore Gallone ◽  
Emma Rabino Massa

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of conditions, each of which represents a risk factor for cardiovascular disease: central obesity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia and hypertension. In different recent studies, MetS has been associated with an accelerate cognitive decline in the elderly. The aim of our research was to investigate the relationship between MetS and cognitive performance in 174 Italian elderly people living in Val Cenischia (Piedmont, Italy). Mini mental state examination (MMSE) has been administered to assess the cognitive status of all participants. The prevalence of MetS is 50.3% (51.3 and 49.5% for males and females, respectively). Our results confirm the association between MetS and worse cognitive performance in the elderly: an increased number of MetS components is associated with an increased risk of developing cognitive impairment (odds ratio=1.54; confidence interval 95%:1.04-2.28; P&lt;0.05).


2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Vermigli ◽  
Alessandro Toni

The present research analyzes the relationship between attachment styles at an adult age and field dependence in order to identify possible individual differences in information processing. The “Experience in Close Relationships” test of Brennan et al. was administered to a sample of 380 individuals (160 males, 220 females), while a subsample of 122 subjects was given the Embedded Figure Test to measure field dependence. Confirming the starting hypothesis, the results have shown that individuals with different attachment styles have a different way of perceiving the figure against the background. Ambivalent and avoidant individuals lie at the two extremes of the same dimension while secure individuals occupy the central part. Significant differences also emerged between males and females.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Gomez-Conesa ◽  
Maria Virgilia Anton Anton ◽  
Daniel Jesus Catalan Matamoros

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