Land Surface Temperatures and Suicide Prevalence in Utah

Keywords: Suicide, Land Surface Temperatures, climate change, remote sensing, mental health
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 800,000 people die by suicide annually worldwide. The risk of suicide is often perceived to increase in cold and “gloomy” areas, but some research suggests the contrary that suicide risk is related to higher temperatures and solar radiation. In temperate regions, suicide is most prevalent during the spring and summer months. Under climate change, heat waves are increasing in intensity and frequency. However, research on associations between extreme heat and suicide is limited. In this research, we explored the spatial association between land surface temperatures (LST) during the summer months and suicide prevalence at the census tract level in Utah, USA. The years examined spanned from 2013 to 2019. Clusters were identified using a Bivariate Local Indicators of Spatial Autocorrelation (LISA) analysis. Census tracts in urban Salt Lake County, particularly in West Valley and North Salt Lake, form clusters of high suicide prevalence and high LST. Rural tracts in south-central and eastern Utah also form clusters of high suicide prevalence and high LST. Our analysis was exploratory and ecological. Findings provide a useful starting point for future analyses that assess the mechanistic role of extreme heat in suicide risk using individual-level data and the role of other environmental and social determinants of health (e.g., green spaces) in mitigating the effects of extreme heat on suicide. Funding: This research was supported by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences under grant R25ES031497 and R01ES032028.