RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a suicide prevention advertising media campaign by the Korea Suicide Prevention Center in 2014 and to analyze the changes in the levels of suicide prevention related-knowledge, attitude, and behavior of the advertisement viewers. METHODS: Data of 703 participants who responded to both the pre and post telephone surveys out of 1100 adults aged 19 or over randomly selected nationwide were analyzed using a stratified proportional quota sampling method considering sex, age, and region by a survey agency. A propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was used to adjust for potential biases in estimated effects. RESULTS: Of 703 participants who completed pre and post survey interviews, 25.9% watched the media campaign. Comparing the knowledge, attitude, and behavior scores between the advertisement viewers (n=182) and non-viewers (n=521), of those who watched the media campaign, participants' knowledge score showed a statistically significantly increase in all methods of the PSM analysis while there were no statistically significant changes in attitude and behavior. CONCLUSION: The results supported the effectiveness of a suicide prevention media campaign in terms of knowledge, but not of attitude and behavior related to suicide prevention. Further long-term large evaluation studies are suggested.