Estimation of reporting delay and suicide incidence in Hong Kong

This paper uses a semi-parametric method to examine the reporting delay distribution in suicides in Hong Kong reporting system. The data arise from a rightly truncated situation in which only suicide cases registered before a specific time are known to have occurred; otherwise they are not recorded in the known death files even if they have occurred. It is shown that the poisoning-related suicide deaths have a longer reporting delay than other suicide methods. By modelling the reporting delay function, a Horvitz-Thompson-type estimator is suggested to adjust for reporting delay and to provide a more timely estimate of the suicide incidences for monitoring the suicide problem in Hong Kong. Based on these analyses, we recommended a suitable cut-off date to collect suicide cases occurring in the previous year and reported before this date in Hong Kong.