8245691 Decline in suicides associated with financial and job problems following COVID-19 stimulus payments

<h3>Objective</h3> This study seeks to determine whether there were declines in the percentage of suicides associated with financial and job problems following stimulus payments during the COVID-19 pandemic among working-age adults. <h3>Methods</h3> This study used data about suicides among working-age adults (16 to 64) for the years 2020 to 2021 from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). We calculated the monthly percentage of suicides that were associated with either financial or job problems during this time period. Using interrupted-time series analysis, we examined changes in these percentages following the three stimulus payments issued during the pandemic. <h3>Results</h3> Following the first stimulus payment there was a statistically significant decline of 1.39% (p&lt;0.001) in percentage of suicides associated with financial problems. While there was not a statistically significant decline in the percentage of suicides associated with job problems following the first stimulus payment there was a statistically significant decline in the monthly trend of suicides associated with job problems (change in trend= -0.07, p=0.049). There were also statistically significant declines in trends in suicides associated with financial problems (change in trend=-0.14, p&lt;0.001) and job problems (change in trend=-0.13, p&lt;0.001) following the second stimulus payment and a statistically significant decline in trends in suicides associated with job problems (change in trend=-0.16, p=0.016) following the third stimulus payment. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The three stimulus payments issued during the COVID-19 pandemic were linked with declines in the percentage of suicides associated with financial and job problems. The exact impact differed across the different stimulus payments. Further research should examine the impact that these stimulus payments may have had on the overall decline in suicides that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.