A case series review of suicides associated with social media use in South Tyneside,England

Objectives

Social media use has been described as influencing self-harm and suicide behaviour in survey-based studies ¹ and elsewhere.^2,3 However, there is no published epidemiological data exploring social media use and suicide. This study aimed to review deaths involving both self-harm and social media use to determine whether demographic commonalities exist which may inform future preventative public health strategies.

Design

Review of documentation from Coroner’s Inquests for all deaths involving an element of self-harm between 2011 and 2013. Ethical approval was not sought for this review of public documentation. This study was unfunded.

Setting

South Tyneside, a metropolitan borough in North East England with a 2011 census population of 148,127.

Participants

All residents in whose deaths the Coroner at Inquest had judged there to be an element of self-harm.

Main outcome measures

Compilation of demographic data describing the cohort of residents whose deaths involved an element of self-harm and the subset for which evidence from social media had been cited at Inquest.

Results

Forty-three deceased residents’ deaths were judged by the Coroner to involve an element of self-harm. Social media was cited at eight Inquests (19%).

Among those cases where social media was cited, six identified as male (75%). The mean age at death was 50 years. Two cases (25%) were aged under 45 years. Among those where social media was not cited, 25 identified as male (71%). The mean age at death was 46 years. Twenty cases (57%) were aged under 45 years. Further demographic comparisons are given in Table 1.

Table 1.

Comparative demographics of cohort of deaths involving an element of self-harm according to whether evidence from social media was entered at Inquest.

	Deaths where social media was not cited at Inquest (n = 35)	Deaths where social media was cited at Inquest (n = 8)
Mean age at death	46 years	50 years
Proportion of deaths at age:
Under 45 years	57%	25%
45–65 years	26%	75%
Over 65 years	17%	0%
Proportion of deceased documented as:
Male	71%	75%
Single	37%	63%
White British	89%	75%
Having a diagnosed mental illness	46%	25%
Being in employment	26%	38%
Proportion of deaths occurring in each year:
2011	29%	0%
2012	26%	38%
2013	45%	63%

The type of social media evidence cited at Inquest varied. One case involved live streaming of a death; some involved bullying or harassment. All Inquests cited evidence from only a single social media website. In seven cases (88%), the evidence was from Facebook.

Conclusions

The deceased in cases where evidence from social media was cited at Inquest were less likely to have been aged under 45 than those in which social media evidence was not cited. They were also more likely to have been single and in employment but less likely to have been diagnosed with mental illness.

The generalisability of these findings is unclear. The findings may solely reflect greater use of social media: this is supported by the increasing number of deaths involving an element of social media use occurring in each of the three years studied. However, it is notable that fewer than 20% of Facebook users are aged over 45, ⁴ contrasting with the demographics of the social media subset.

Most public sector and charity campaigns and interventions regarding safe use of social media have been targeted at children and young people. Given the ages of cases identified in this review, further research may be warranted to ensure that such programmes are targeted on the basis of epidemiological evidence of need.