Table 2.
Reporting of characteristics advised against in the guidelines before, during, and after legislation changes legalizing AS.
| Coding categories | Total n (all 3 periods) (n = 906) | Period 1 (2017–2019) (n = 103) | Period 2 (2020–2021) (n = 719) | Period 3 (2022) (n = 84) | Comparison of period 1 vs. 21 | Comparison of period 2 vs. 31 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics advised against in the guidelines | |||||||
| Step-by-step description of AS | 113 (12.5) | 6 (5.8) | 74 (10.3) | 33 (39.3) | 2.05 | 54.74*** | |
| Monocausality | 129 (14.2) | 40 (38.8) | 70 (9.7) | 19 (22.6) | 65.82*** | 12.67*** | |
| Celebrity | 39 (4.3) | 13 (12.6) | 13 (1.8) | 13 (15.5) | n/a*** | n/a*** | |
| Substance name | 37 (4.1) | 5 (4.9) | 22 (3.1) | 10 (11.9) | n/a | n/a*** | |
| Romanticization/glorification | 464 (51.2) | 55 (53.4) | 375 (52.2) | 34 (40.5) | 0.06 | 4.12* | |
| Reference to the method of AS or suicide in the headline/sub-headline | 20 (2.2) | 6 (5.8) | 12 (1.7) | 2 (2.4) | n/a* | n/a | |
| False myths | 325 (35.9) | 44 (42.7) | 252 (35.0) | 29 (34.5) | 2.30 | 0.01 | |
| Stigmatizing language | 304 (33.6) | 27 (26.2) | 268 (37.3) | 9 (10.7) | 4.79* | 23.48*** | |
| Epidemic/wave/increase of AS | 107 (11.8) | 1 (1.0) | 105 (14.6) | 1 (1.2) | 14.91*** | 11.81*** | |
| Suggesting inevitability | 188 (20.8) | 19 (18.4) | 158 (22.0) | 11 (13.1) | 0.66 | 3.57 | |
| Difficulty level to get AS approved or to carry out AS | Yes, AS too difficult to carry out | 158 (17.4) | 29 (28.2) | 102 (14.2) | 27 (32.1) | 13.12*** | 17.99*** |
| No clear valuation | 736 (81.2) | 72 (69.9) | 607 (84.4) | 57 (67.9) | 13.22*** | 14.42*** | |
| Yes, AS too easy to carry out | 12 (1.3) | 2 (1.9) | 10 (1.4) | 0 (0.0) | n/a | n/a | |
| Help/contact for AS | 195 (21.5) | 30 (29.1) | 138 (19.2) | 27 (32.1) | 5.47* | 7.73** | |
Values are presented as frequencies with percentages given in parentheses. Symbols (*) indicate significant differences with chi-squared tests or, in case of low frequencies, Fisher’s exact tests; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 (two-tailed).
n/a = not applicable (Fisher’s exact test).
1The degrees of freedom are 1 for chi-squared tests.