Discovery of Intentional Self-Harm Patterns from Suicide and Self-Harm Surveillance Reports

Objectives The purpose of this study was to identify patterns of self-harm risk factors from suicide and self-harm surveillance reports in Thailand. Methods This study analyzed data from suicide and self-harm surveillance reports submitted to Khon Kaen Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital, Thailand....

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vuttichai Vichianchai, Sumonta Kasemvilas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Korean Society of Medical Informatics 2022-10-01
Series:Healthcare Informatics Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.e-hir.org/upload/pdf/hir-2022-28-4-319.pdf
Description
Summary:Objectives The purpose of this study was to identify patterns of self-harm risk factors from suicide and self-harm surveillance reports in Thailand. Methods This study analyzed data from suicide and self-harm surveillance reports submitted to Khon Kaen Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital, Thailand. The process of identifying patterns of self-harm risk factors involved: data preprocessing (namely, data preparation and cleaning, missing data management using listwise deletion and expectation-maximization techniques, subgrouping factors, determining the target factors, and data correlation for learning); classifying the risk of self-harm (severe or mild) using 10-fold cross-validation with the support vector machine, random forest, multilayer perceptron, decision tree, k-nearest neighbors, and ensemble techniques; data filtering; identifying patterns of self-harm risk factors using 10-fold cross-validation with the classification and regression trees (CART) technique; and evaluating patterns of self-harm risk factors. Results The random forest technique was most accurate for classifying the risk of self-harm, with specificity, sensitivity, and F-score of 92.84%, 93.12%, and 91.46%, respectively. The CART technique was able to identify 53 patterns of self-harm risk, consisting of 16 severe self-harm risk patterns and 37 mild self-harm risk patterns, with an accuracy of 92.85%. In addition, we discovered that the type of hospital was a new risk factor for severe self-harm. Conclusions The procedure presented herein could identify patterns of risk factors from self-harm and assist psychiatrists in making decisions related to self-harm among patients visiting hospitals in Thailand.
ISSN:2093-3681
2093-369X