Authors: Woo, J. M.; Gibbons, R. D.¹; Rogers, C. A.²; Qin, P.³; Kim, J. B.¹; Roberts, D. W.⁴; Noh, E. S.⁵; Mann, J. J.⁶; Postolache, T. T.

Source: Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Volume 125, Number 2, 1 February 2012 , pp. 168-175(8)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

Woo JM, Gibbons RD, Rogers CA, Qin P, Kim JB, Roberts DW, Noh ES, Mann JJ, Postolache TT. Pollen counts and suicide rates. Association not replicated.

Objective:  To replicate a previously reported association between pollen counts and county suicide rates in the continental United States, across space and time.

Method:  The authors evaluated the relationship between airborne pollen counts and suicide rates in 42 counties of the continental United States, containing a pollen-counting station participating in the Aeroallergen Monitoring Network in the United States (N = 120 076 suicides), considering years' quarter, age group, sex, race, rural/urban location, number of local psychiatrists, and median household income, from 1999 to 2002. The county-level effects were broken into between-county and within-county.

Results:  No within-county effects were found. Between-county effects for grass and ragweed pollen on suicide rates lost statistical significance after adjustment for median income, number of psychiatrists, and urban vs. rural location.

Conclusion:  Future research is necessary to reappraise the previously reported relationship between pollen levels and suicide rates that may have been driven by socioeconomic confounders.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2011.01813.x

Affiliations: 1: Center for Health Statistics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 2: Environmental Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA 3: National Centre for Register-Based Research, University of Aarhus, Aarhus C, Denmark 4: Optimal Solutions Group, LLC, College Park, MD, USA 5: Stress Research Institute, Inje University, Seoul, Korea 6: Division of Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Publication date: 2012-02-01

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