Differences in the adequacy of news about suicide in Spain vs. Victoria, Australia

are interventions aimed to the media effective?

Abstract

Background: News about suicide may have either a contagion effect or a protective effect. For this reason, interventions aimed to the media are a priority. However, the effectiveness of the interventions has not yet been elucidated. The objective of the study was to evaluate comparatively the characteristics and adequacy of suicide news articles between geographical areas in which interventions aimed at media either exist or not. 

Methods: We evaluated suicide news articles in the four main digital media of Spain (without interventions) and Victoria, Australia (with interventions), according to Alexa (a website traffic statistics). We assessed adherence to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, avoidability, frequency, and typology of suicide news articles. The evaluation period was 6 months. Bivariate analysis was performed comparing the samples using t-test, Chi-Squared test and Fisher’s exact test according to the type of variable.

Results: We identified 378 suicide news articles: 141 in Spain and 237 in Victoria. Suicide news articles in Spain showed a lower degree of adherence to the WHO recommendations than those from Victoria (2.97 vs. 11.8; p<0.001). Mean daily number of suicide news articles was lower in Spain (0.78 vs. 1.31; p<0.001). Typology according to contents was different between both regions (p=0.045), with greater prevalence of “suicide after murder” in Spain. However, there were no differences either in avoidability, or in typology according to behaviour.

Conclusions: Suicide news articles are more adequate in the geographic area in which interventions aimed at media are performed. These better characteristics imply lower risk of contagion effect, greater likelihood of protective effect and, therefore, a potential beneficial effect on the suicidal behaviour in the reference population.