Dependence of suicide frequency rate on the use of non-office hours
Authors: Korotkov P. A. , Rubyanov A. B. , Zagaynova E. A. , Chemodanova I. D. 
Published: September 2019

Suicide is a social phenomenon, which depends on the living conditions of the population. The existing and changing socioeconomic conditions influence people’s daily routine. This fact enables us to consider daily life as a suicide factor. The main method to study everyday life is the time budget. It is quite accurate indicator of people’s lifestyle and changes in their behavior at work (office hours), welfare and recreation (non-office hours).

The previous analyses have shown that the time spent taking care of the family members, volunteering and being involved in recreational and cultural activities are considered the factors significantly reducing suicide rate. However, the stability of correlation between the suicide frequency rate and the time spent on welfare and recreation remains unclear. The same concerns the significance of every single correlation coefficient.

The work aims to determine the stable nucleus of hierarchy for off-work daily activities, which influence the suicide frequency rate, as well as the close and far peripheries of the hierarchy nucleus. The methodology of the research is based on the correlation analysis of the panel data and the national approaches to identifying the nucleus of certain processes as a set of sustainable properties emerging in different interactions.

As a result of small sampling in correlation analysis of suicide frequency rate and the use of time we applied non-parametric methods. The sources of data include the World Health Organization and EUROSTAT. The latter provides consistent, comparable and detailed data on average time consumed by one surveyed, by one participant and the degree of employee’s involvement in the framework of Harmonized European Time Use Surveys (HETUS). The first wave of HETUS 2000 was implemented by 15 European countries in the period from 1998 to 2006. The second wave of HETUS 2000 was implemented by 18 European countries in the period from 2008 to 2015.

The meaningful analysis of coefficient matrices of Spearman and Kendall and scattering diagram made it possible to identify the activity hierarchy connected with suicide frequency rate for all the employed population (males and females). The research revealed that the core of the hierarchy for the employed people in general and males in particular is watching TV and video, which is positively interconnected with suicide frequency rate. This activity accounts for most of the time. The nucleus is relatively stable due to high level of engagement (over 80%). The core of the hierarchy for the employed women is housekeeping excluding cleaning activities in the house, which is positively connected with suicide frequency rate, and common (cooperative) activities negatively connected with suicide frequency rate. The nucleus is relatively stable due to high level of engagement (over 55%).

The obtained interconnections and their directions are validated by other research outcomes. Meanwhile, they are more reliable, stable and detailed. The nucleus of activity hierarchy for the employed women has dual controversial nature and represents the factors reducing and increasing the risk of suicide. Close and far peripheries of the nucleus for the employed people and employed males contain factors reducing suicide risk, which opens up the potential by forcing watching TV and video at least to the close periphery. At the same time the potential hazard is found at the edge of close and far peripheries of the hierarchy nucleus represented by suicide risk factors only. For the employed women the threat is more obvious, since the close and the far peripheries of the nucleus are represented by suicide risk factors.