Internet Use, Socioeconomic Indicators, and Suicide Mortality: An Ecological Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18192/osurj.v5i1.8034Abstract
This study examined the associations between internet use, socioeconomic factors, and suicide mortality from 2015 to 2023 using World Bank data. The objective was to evaluate how technological access correlates with social and economic development indicators in relation to population-level mental health outcomes. The assessment analyzed Country-level data on internet penetration, GDP per capita, literacy, suicide mortality rates, life expectancy, school enrollment, unemployment, electricity access, and population growth. Correlation analyses, descriptive statistics, and global mapping summarized patterns, while hierarchical linear regression models adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic factors in stages. Results showed significant variation in internet use (2.2–100%) and suicide mortality (0.63–29.53 per 100,000). High-income countries had higher internet penetration (≅ 85%) and elevated suicide rates (≅ 9–11 per 100,000) compared to low-income countries (≅ 11% internet use; ≅ 6.5 per 100,000 suicide). Internet use was strongly correlated with GDP (r ≅ 0.70), literacy (r ≅ 0.60), and life expectancy (r ≅ 0.65). In regression models, internet use showed a weak positive association in unadjusted analyses that reversed to a negative association after accounting for socioeconomic factors (β = -0.30, 95% CI: -0.50, -0.10). Life expectancy and school enrollment were also associated with suicide mortality.
These findings indicate that the ecological, cross-sectional association between access to the internet and deaths from suicide is influenced by national socioeconomic circumstances. While more developed countries that had higher levels of internet access were more likely to have lower levels of suicide, the nature of the cross-sectional data and ecological design does not allow causal inference. These results are also important because they show the need to take national socioeconomic status into account when studying relationships between digital technology and the population's health status.
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