Introduction
Despite experiencing a decrease in the initial two decades of the 21st century, Poland continues to grapple with relatively elevated suicide rates in two age groups - older adults and youth. Initiating national suicide prevention initiatives begins with scrutinizing the patterns in suicide rates and pinpointing groups at higher risk. This study aims to investigate the epidemiological short term trends of suicidal behaviours of children and adolescents in Poland
Materials and methods
This epidemiological investigation involved a analysis of suicide behaviour data from 2017 to 2023 in Poland. We have analyzed official daily suicide behaviour statistics obtained from the Police Headquarters.
Results
Data show a marked increase in suicidal behavior between 2017 and 2023 among children and adolescents in Poland. The highest average daily number of suicides in the population <18 years of age was recorded in the months of September and October (0,48 and 0,42 per day respectively). In contrast, the months with the highest daily statistics for suicide attempts were May and March (3,69 and 3,64 per day respectively) . Among the days of the week, the highest values were reported on Mondays (3.71 suicide attempts and 0.37 suicide deaths on average). In 2022, there were 2 days with the highest number of suicides (4). The days on which the peak numbers of suicide attempts were recorded 17 on 20/03/2023 and 16 on 28/03/2022.
Conclusions
The analyzed data show a slightly different temporal distribution of suicide deaths and suicide attempts among children and adolescents in Poland. Careful tracking of time microtrends should be a routine reporting activity that can significantly contribute to improving prevention efforts.