Background/Context: Suicide mortality has seen a resurgence of interest from public health practitioners, increasing interest in prevention and intervention. Completed suicide within the United States increased between 2008 and 2015. Less focus has been given to suicide morbidity and associations with the effect popular cultural influences and exposure to suicide-related behaviors has on suicide attempts.

Description: Information on suicide attempts within Kentucky from 2008 to 2015 was gathered using Kentucky Inpatient Hospital Discharge data to conduct a geographic analysis of the burden of attempted suicide. Choropleth maps were created to identify geographic patterns of temporal county-level trends of suicide morbidity. Additional temporal associations with events in popular culture were assessed. Popular cultural events were investigated through Internet searches of news websites and open-content Internet databases.

Lessons Learned: Between 2008 and 2015, 3,222 attempted suicides were identified from the database. Over the study window, suicide attempts in Kentucky rose from 47 in 2008 to 516 in 2015, peaking in 2011 at 564 attempts. Between 2009 and 2010, suicide attempts saw a 413.86% increase within Kentucky (101 in 2009 to 418 in 2010). Similar spikes were seen in several Kentucky counties. During this same period, several high-profile celebrity suicides and suicide-related behaviors have occurred (e.g., Michael Jackson). Between 2010 and 2015, the number of non-overdose celebrity deaths exceeded celebrity deaths due to overdose.

Recommendations/Implications: The burden of suicide in Kentucky is high and has remained elevated. Intervention strategies should focus on reducing both suicide morbidity and mortality, especially in periods when suicide gains attention in popular culture media.