{
  "abstract": "Background Suicide is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, and self-harm is a key risk factor. Continuous monitoring of self-harm trends facilitates effective prevention. During the coronavirus disease pandemic, social distancing significantly influenced self-harm incidence. This study aimed to compare self-harm rates and patient characteristics in 3-year prepandemic and pandemic periods (2017–2019 and 2020–2022, respectively).Methods We retrospectively analysed and subdivided the data over 6 years into 3-month intervals, obtained from the Emergency Department (ED)-based Injury In-depth Surveillance database, South Korea, to examine changes in the incidence of self-harm in patients visiting the ED from the prepandemic to pandemic period and compared the characteristics of patients who attempted self-harm and risk factors for in-hospital mortality.Results Among 8 02 032 patients (age: 18–64 years), we identified 45 535 patients with self-harm injuries (overall rate: 5.68%), which significantly increased during the pandemic (4.6% (21 852) in 2017–2019 to 7.2% (n=23 683) in 2020–2022). Age-group-stratified comparisons showed increased self-harm incidence across all age groups, especially among women younger than 30 years, during the pandemic period. The proportion of self-harm attributed to psychological problems increased markedly. However, the two periods showed no significant difference in the in-hospital mortality.Discussion and conclusion The incidence of self-harm significantly increased and remained consistently higher in patients visiting EDs throughout the pandemic period than during the 3 years prepandemic, even after the relaxation of social distancing measures. Young women primarily drove this increase, and psychological problems constituted a major risk factor.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Emergency Medicine Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, The Republic of Korea"
      ],
      "name": "Kwang Yul Jung"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Emergency Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, The Republic of Korea"
      ],
      "name": "Sejin Heo"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Emergency Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, The Republic of Korea"
      ],
      "name": "Taerim Kim"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Emergency Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, The Republic of Korea"
      ],
      "name": "Won Chul Cha"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Incidence and characteristics of self-harm during the 3-year period of COVID-19-related social distancing in the Republic of Korea",
  "uid": "f5efe9a3-fda0-5014-b4e3-f8c2e09dc9c1"
}