Pollen counts and suicide rates. Association not replicated.
Summary of "Pollen counts and suicide rates. Association not replicated."
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.
Affiliation
Mood and Anxiety Program (MAP), Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA Department of Psychiatry, Seoul Paik Hospital, Inje University School of Medicine Stress Research Institute, In
Journal Details
This article was published in the following journal.
Name: Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica
ISSN: 1600-0447
Pages:
Links
- PubMed Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22176539
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2011.01813.x
Medical and Biotech [MESH] Definitions
Pollen Tube
A growth from a pollen grain down into the flower style which allows two sperm to pass, one to the ovum within the ovule, and the other to the central cell of the ovule to produce endosperm of SEEDS.
Binomial Distribution
The probability distribution associated with two mutually exclusive outcomes; used to model cumulative incidence rates and prevalence rates. The Bernoulli distribution is a special case of binomial distribution.
Dna Replication Timing
The temporal order in which the DNA of the GENOME is replicated.
Suicide
The act of killing oneself.
Suicide, Attempted
The unsuccessful attempt to kill oneself.
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