Asian countries account for approximately 60% of the world's suicides, but there is a great mismatch in the region between the scale of the problem and the resources available to tackle it. Despite certain commonalities, the continent itself is culturally, economically, and socially diverse. This paper reviews current epidemiologic patterns of suicide, including suicide trends, sociodemographic factors, urban/rural living, suicide methods, sociocultural religious influences, and risk and protective factors in Asia, as well as their implications. The observed epidemiologic distributions of suicides reflect complex interplays among the traditional value/culture system, rapid economic transitions under market globalization, availability/desirability of suicide methods, and sociocultural permission/prohibitions regarding suicides. In general, compared with Western countries, Asian countries still have a higher average suicide rate, lower male-to-female suicide gender ratio, and higher elderly-to-general-population suicide ratios. The role of mental illness in suicide is not as important as that in Western countries. In contrast, aggravated by access to lethal means in Asia (e.g., pesticide poisoning and jumping), acute life stress (e.g., family conflicts, job and financial security issues) plays a more important role than it does in Western countries. Some promising suicide prevention programs in Asia are illustrated. Considering the specific socioeconomic and cultural aspects of the region, community-based suicide intervention programs integrating multiple layers of intervention targets may be the most feasible and cost-effective strategy in Asia, with its populous areas and limited resources.

中文翻译：

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亚洲自杀：机遇与挑战。

亚洲国家约占世界自杀总数的60％，但该地区的问题规模和可用于解决该问题的资源之间存在很大的不匹配。尽管有某些共同点，但非洲大陆本身在文化，经济和社会上都是多样化的。本文回顾了当前自杀的流行病学模式，包括自杀趋势，社会人口统计学因素，城市/农村生活，自杀方式，社会文化宗教影响，亚洲的风险和保护因素及其影响。观察到的自杀的流行病学分布反映了传统价值/文化体系之间的复杂相互作用，市场全球化下的快速经济转型，自杀方法的可用性/可取性以及关于自杀的社会文化许可/禁止。一般来说，与西方国家相比，亚洲国家的平均自杀率仍然较高，男女自杀率均较低，老年人与普通人群的自杀率更高。精神疾病在自杀中的作用并不像西方国家那么重要。相反，与亚洲国家相比，急性致死压力（例如家庭冲突，工作和财务安全问题）加剧了亚洲人使用致命手段（如杀虫剂中毒和跳楼）的严重性。说明了亚洲一些有希望的自杀预防计划。考虑到该地区特定的社会经济和文化方面，以社区为基础的自杀干预计划将多层干预目标整合在一起，可能是亚洲最可行，最具成本效益的战略，