Online Program

329871
Effectiveness of a suicide prevention TV campaign on the recognition and utilization of the National Suicide Hotline in Korea


Monday, November 2, 2015

In Han Song, PhD, Institute of Convergence Science, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South)

Jung-Soo Kim, M.A., Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South)
Jung-Won You, MA, Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South)
Ji Eun Kim, MSW, Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South)
Sewon Kwon, MSW, Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South)
Jong-Ik Park, MD, Ph.D., LLM, Department of Psychiatry, Kangwon National University School of Medicine, Chuncheon, Korea, Republic of (South)
Background

Mass media campaign is known to be an effective method, but little is investigated about the effectiveness on suicide prevention in Korea whose suicide rate is the highest one among OECD countries. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a TV campaign conducted by Korea Suicide Prevention Center.


Methods

For Study 1, we analyzed the data of 703 participants who completed both pre and post surveys out of a total of 1,100 adults randomly selected nationwide using a stratified proportional quota sampling method considering sex, age, and region. For Study 2, we analyzed the number of phone calls to the hotline of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Descriptive analysis and Chi-Square analysis were used.


Results

For Study 1, 25.9% of the sample watched the TV campaign. While no one knew the hotline number(129) in the pre-survey, 5.5% reported the exact number among the TV ad viewers (N=182) in post-survey. The relationship between the watching the TV campaign and recognition of the hotline was statistically significant (X2=7.279, p=0.014). For Study 2, there were significantly increased phone calls during the campaign than the average of 4 weeks before the campaign. The average number of phone calls per day increased during the 15-day campaign was 69.7 compared to 39.5 before the campaign.


Conclusion

The results supported the effectiveness of suicide prevention mass media campaign in terms of recognition and use of the crisis hotline by showing the increased number of people who recognized the hotline number and the increased hotline phone calls during the campaign.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate the effectiveness of a suicide prevention TV campaign in Korea. Analyze the number of people who get to recognize the information about suicide prevention hotline after TV media campaign. Assess the actual number of phone calls to the hotline of the Ministry of Health and Welfare

Keyword(s): Suicide, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I actively participated in designing the study, analyzed the data together, and wrote the manuscript together.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.